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Ethiopia: Eritrea

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will hold discussions with the Government of Eritrea on incursions into the international demilitarised area in the border region between Ethiopia and Eritrea. (218654)

The UK's policy towards the Ethiopia-Eritrea border dispute is based on three principles: to avoid any return to war; for the border to be demarcated; and for the parties to normalise their relations. Ethiopia and Eritrea should agree a way forward to allow demarcation to proceed and for a normalisation process to begin, as set out in the Algiers Agreements of June and December 2000, to which both Ethiopia and Eritrea are signatories.

As part of the above policy, we continue to request Eritrea to remove its forces from the Temporary Security Zoneā€”the demilitarised zone established along the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

My hon. Friend the Minister for the Middle East, Kim Howells, set out this policy to the Eritrean ambassador on 10 July. The UK's policy has equally been conveyed to the Government of Ethiopia, notably by my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary to the Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin in November and by my noble Friend the Minister for Africa, Lord Malloch-Brown, to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles in January in Addis Ababa.

In addition, Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials continually reiterate these messages to both the Ethiopian and Eritrean ambassadors to London and to their interlocutors in the Governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea in Addis Ababa and Asmara respectively.