Ethiopia and Russia are rapidly expanding their partnership across political, economic, and technological fronts, marking one of the most ambitious phases of bilateral engagement between the two nations, Russian Ambassador Evgeny Terekhin said this week in an interview with the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA).
Ambassador Terekhin described the relationship as “comprehensive and full-scale,” underscoring that it now spans nearly every major sector—from high-level political dialogue and parliamentary cooperation to science, trade, and nuclear energy development.
“Frankly speaking, it would be very difficult to find any sphere in which we don’t cooperate,” he said, calling the progress in recent years “remarkable.”
According to the ambassador, political ties between Moscow and Addis Ababa have strengthened significantly through repeated direct engagements between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed—four meetings in recent years that, he said, focused on “deepening and strengthening” cooperation.
Beyond leadership diplomacy, Terekhin highlighted robust coordination between the House of Federation, the House of People’s Representatives, and their Russian counterparts, alongside growing interparty collaboration between the ruling political movements in both countries.
The ambassador pointed to a major surge in bilateral trade, noting that in just the first six months of the current year, total trade volume had already surpassed that of the entire previous year.
“We have already reached very inspiring results,” Terekhin said, emphasizing that economic engagement remains a central pillar of the relationship.
A major new frontier, however, lies in technology and nuclear energy. The ambassador revealed that several agreements have been signed to accelerate Ethiopia’s entry into the nuclear sector in partnership with Russia’s state-owned energy corporation, Rosatom.
During Russian Atomic Week in Moscow, Prime Minister Abiy and President Putin approved an action plan for the construction of Ethiopia’s first nuclear power plant, a move hailed by both sides as a historic milestone in bilateral cooperation.
“The development of nuclear energy will be a cornerstone of our modern scientific and technological partnership,” Terekhin said, noting that Russia views Ethiopia as a key strategic partner in Africa’s emerging energy transformation.
The deepening partnership comes as both countries pursue independent foreign policies amid shifting global alignments—Ethiopia’s government positioning itself as a regional power in the Horn of Africa, and Russia expanding its footprint across the continent through infrastructure, energy, and defense projects.
With trade, technology, and diplomacy all advancing in tandem, Ambassador Terekhin suggested that Moscow and Addis Ababa are entering a new era of alignment rooted in mutual respect and strategic ambition.
