"Working dinner with Mr. Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia", can be read on Emmanuel Macron's presidential diary on the page of February 7, 2023. Contacted by France 24, the Elysian press services did not will say no more.

No press release or tweet to comment on the exchange on the French side.

A communication to say the least discreet which is not surprising.

"Since the start of the war in Tigray, France has opted for a cautious but constant diplomacy with Addis Ababa, explains Patrick Ferras, director of the Horn of Africa Observatory. A communication that stands out from the very trenchant discourse of the head of European diplomacy Joseph Borell, who has never ceased to forcefully and vehemently condemn the war in Tigray", which has displaced more than two million Ethiopians and plunged hundreds of thousands of people into similar conditions of starvation.

Always good to meet my friend @EmmanuelMacron. Thank you for the warm welcome to Paris.

As the relations b/n our two countries' progress, I'm very confident that it will translate into strengthened economic outcomes.

We very much welcome investments by French companies in Ethiopia.

pic.twitter.com/jUCnyGpKto

— Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) February 8, 2023

To learn more about the meeting between Abiy Ahmed and Emmanuel Macron, it is on the Twitter account of the Ethiopian chief executive that you have to go.

Photos and enthusiastic comments are jumbled together: warm hugs on the steps of the Élysée, handshakes, informal discussions on a sofa.

Nothing is missing.

"Always good to meet my friend Emmanuel Macron. Thank you for the warm welcome in Paris, comments in English Abiy Ahmed. As the relations between our two countries progress, I am convinced that this will translate into economic results We very much welcome investments from French companies in Ethiopia". 

pic.twitter.com/WPOoEuJq51

— Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) February 8, 2023

A courted economic partner

The sentence is dropped.

It is indeed economic interests that motivated the meeting.

If France has frozen its relations with Addis Ababa for two years to show that it condemns the fratricidal war in Tigray, it has gradually resumed its ties where they left off.

Just days after the peace agreement signed on November 2 in Pretoria, South Africa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he spoke by telephone with Emmanuel Macron.

Again, the phone call was not the subject of any official communication from the Elysée. 

Then in mid-January, Catherine Colonna, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, accompanied by her German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, met Abyi Ahmed to "consolidate peace efforts".

A communication always cautiously maintained by Paris, which is reluctant to highlight its relations with a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has become over the months an infrequent warlord.

And "at the same time", the presidential ambition to continue the economic relations started in 2019 with a coveted partner.  

>> To read: Referendum in Ethiopia: Abiy Ahmed put to the test by ethnic claims

"Emmanuel Macron, who has always had very good contact with Abyi Ahmed, sees in him a great leader. He is not fooled by what happened in the Tigray region, but the French president has always wanted to develop its links with the future lion of Africa represented by Ethiopia, analyzes Patrick Ferras.Since he arrived at the Élysée, he has not ceased to show his desire to change French software vis-à-vis Africa to develop privileged ties with this economically very promising country".  

The reconquest of aid 

With 110 million inhabitants, potentially 213 million in 2050 according to the latest UN report, Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa behind Nigeria, is a very popular market for investors.

Even if the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Tigray have put a serious brake on its economic development, with less than expected growth at 3.8% in 2022 and exponential inflation of 35%.

"Abiy Ahmed, who brought peace to his country, is at the head of a destroyed country. The regions of Tigray, northern Amhara and western Afar which have suffered the brunt of the war , are entirely to be rebuilt. There is therefore a market to be taken, continues the specialist Patrick Ferras. Unfortunately, France, which comes after China, Turkey and India,  

For his part, Abyi Ahmed hopes to obtain financial guarantees from France.

The Oromo leader is indeed counting on the support of Paris to weigh all his weight with the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF has indeed frozen Ethiopia's debt restructuring program since the start of the civil war in November 2020. 

The head of government also came to look in Emmanuel Macron for an ally to renew relations that had become very tense between Addis Ababa and the European Union.

In 2021, the EU also suspended budget support to Ethiopia following the blockade imposed by the Ethiopian federal government on the Tigray region.

Since then, Brussels has made the return of this aid conditional on concrete commitments in terms of justice, politics and humanitarian access.  

The return of dialogue with Brussels

By starting a post-war European tour, Abiy Ahmed, who also went to Italy on February 6, hopes to restore the confidence of the main members of the EU and thus put Josep Borrell in the minority.

Relations between Brussels and Addis Ababa were so severed that when talks began at the end of October in Pretoria between the TPLF and the federal government, the Ethiopian government objected to the presence of the EU among the observers.

Finally, "he does not lose sight of the fact that France is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and that it is always better to establish good relations with the five heavyweights who are at the negotiating table", says the researcher.  

Chance or coincidence of the calendar, the day before his visit to Paris, the French press revealed the pharaonic project of Abiy Ahmed who offered himself the construction of a palace with an area of ​​503 hectares estimated between 400 billion and 500 billion birrs, more than 6 to 8 billion euros.

A last element which has not been the subject of Elysian communication either.  

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