Eritrea's Foreign minister Osman Saleh Mohammed (3rdR) walks with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (C) as Eritrea's delegation arrives for peace talks with Ethiopia at the international airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on June 26, 2018. / AFP / YONAS
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: A delegation of top officials from Eritrea has arrived Tuesday in Ethiopia for the first peace talks in 20 years.
Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Sale and others were welcomed at the airport by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, signifying the importance of their visit.
The delegation came after Abiy, Ethiopia's new, reformist leader, surprised his country earlier this month by stating that he fully accepts a peace deal from 2000 that ended the border war with Eritrea that killed tens of thousands of people. Although outright fighting has stopped, the peace agreement has not been implemented and relations between the two countries have remained tense. Ethiopia and Eritrea have not opened diplomatic relations and their forces have engaged in skirmishes a number of times in recent years.
