Washington DC, 3 July 2022 (TDI): Seleshi Bekele, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ethiopia to the United States presented his credentials to President Biden, the 46th President of the USA.
Afterward, Ambassador Bekele attended an event hosted by the current Secretary of the United States, Antony Blinken, and his wife.
Moreover, the Ethiopian Ambassador had a meeting with Ambassador Molly Phee from the American Bureau of African Affairs.
Before he visited the White House, Ambassador Bekele met with 25 professors at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington DC.
In addition, these professors are mostly African Americans from various parts of the USA. According to Ambassador Bekele, the meeting mainly focused on socio-economic and cultural issues.
Moreover, the Ambassador also discussed the impacts and challenges of climate, natural disasters, conflicts, food insecurity, and migration with professors.
An Overview of the Relationship between Ethiopia and the USA
Ethiopia and the United States have long had deep diplomatic relations. The interaction between the two countries covers many fields, including politics and economy.
However, the outbreak of the Tigray war cast a shadow over relations between Ethiopia and the United States. The United States has been sharply critical of the humanitarian crisis in Tigray, causing a rift with the Ethiopian government.
While US political intervention in Ethiopia’s internal conflict has not succeeded in resolving bilateral issues, US humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia has been seen as an important interaction between the two countries.
Accordingly, the US government highly welcomes the progress in securing more regular access to humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia.
Such humanitarian aid mainly focuses on communities in need, in the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regions of Ethiopia.
During the first week of June 2022, the US government in partnership with other international and humanitarian organizations delivered more than 1,100 trucks of daily necessities to Ethiopia.
Furthermore, USAID, an agency supported by the US government has been working on offering humanitarian aid to Ethiopia as well.
For instance, a project named “Transform Primary Health Care” operated by USAID recently came to an end successfully.
According to the Ethiopian office of USAID, the organization invested roughly $124 million in the project over 5 years.
The project benefited over 20 million new and expecting mothers. Meanwhile, the project reached over 11,000 health facilities across 6 regions in Ethiopia.
