International
Ethiopia Racing to join WTO Membership in 2026
Ethiopia is actively engaging with the WTO to conclude its accession negotiations as early as 2026 and to implement its accession commitments.
In a statement, WTO confirms : “As Ethiopia prepares for its 5th Working Party meeting in 2025, the Steering Committee agreed on an accession roadmap which outlines steps and timelines for concluding the negotiations, currently envisaged for 2026.
” Ethiopia is not a member of the WTO though Ethiopia’s gradual accession to the WTO has been underway since 2003.
In August 2023, Ethiopian negotiators lined up a fifth working party meeting with WTO, tentatively set up for March or April 2024.
However, Ethiopia then paused the process for eight years, primarily over concerns about liberalising its banking and telecom sectors.
In June 2019, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, reactivated the process and formed a national committee of ten members to resume the accession procedure.
A high-level delegation from Ethiopia led by Kassahun Gofe Balami, Minister of Trade and Regional Integration and Chief Negotiator for WTO Accession, visited the WTO on 5-11 December to prepare for the reactivation of the country’s accession Working Party in early 2025.
The visit marked Ethiopia’s strong re-engagement in the accession process five years after the last Working Party meeting in January 2020. The visit began with a meeting between Minister Kassahun Gofe Balami and WTO Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang on 5 December 2024.
Minister Kassahun Gofe Balami reaffirmed Ethiopia’s strong commitment to restarting and accelerating its WTO accession.
He underscores the recent progress in Ethiopia’s domestic economic reforms. He further expressed gratitude for the technical support provided by the WTO Secretariat and emphasized his Government’s needs for continued capacity-building, as a least-developed country (LDC).
The Minister also participated in the 9th Working Party Meeting of Uzbekistan on 5–6 December 2024. In his intervention at the meeting, he highlighted that Ethiopia shares Uzbekistan’s steadfast commitment to joining the WTO and noted the contribution of WTO accession to the diversification and liberalization of acceding economies.
The visit included briefing sessions on WTO Accession, jointly delivered by the World Bank and the WTO Secretariat on 9–10 December 2024.
Members of Ethiopia’s Steering Committee addressed the economic impact of WTO membership, key provisions and obligations across WTO Agreements, and specific issues in Ethiopia’s multilateral and bilateral accession negotiations.
The delegation recognized the significant benefits of WTO accession, including increased trade predictability, access to WTO instruments, and increased attractiveness of Ethiopia’s economy for foreign direct investment.
Photo Caption: Members of the Steering Committee: Ambassador Mesganu Arga Moach, State Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Chief Negotiator on WTO Accession; Yasmin Wohabrebbi Saeed, State Minister of Trade and Regional Integration; Eyob Tekalign Tolina, State Minister of Finance; Belayihun Yirga Kifile, State Minister of Justice; Debele Kabeta Hursa, Commissioner for Customs; Fikadu Digafie Huriso, Vice Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia; and Zeleke Temesgen Boru, Commissioner for Investment.
International
Zimbabwe Wins UN Security Council Seat for 2027-2028
The five countries were elected by the 193-member General Assembly to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on January 1, 2027.
Zimbabwe has been elected to a non-permanent, two-year term on the United Nations Security Council, the third time the country will be represented on the body mandated to maintain international peace and security.
Voice of Nigeria reports that the other countries that secured seats around the iconic horseshoe table are Austria, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, and Kyrgyzstan.
The five countries were elected by the 193-member General Assembly to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on January 1, 2027.
Austria and Portugal won the two seats allocated to the Western European and other States (WEOG) Group, while Trinidad and Tobago and Zimbabwe were elected from the Latin American and Caribbean Group and the African Group, respectively.
Kyrgyzstan secured the Asia-Pacific seat after defeating the Philippines in four rounds of voting.
International
Finland’s president says EU should expand to 40 states — including Canada
His comments come as the Trump administration’s actions, alongside Russia’s war with Ukraine, prompt some countries to reconsider the benefits of EU membership.
• Finland’s president Alexander Stubb
Finnish President Alexander Stubb has stressed the need for a much larger European Union, saying the 27-nation bloc should increase its membership to 40 states and named the U.K., Canada, Turkey, Norway and Iceland as potential candidates to join.
Stubb made the call at an energy conference in the Finnish capital on Wednesday.
His comments come as the Trump administration’s actions, alongside Russia’s war with Ukraine, prompt some countries to reconsider the benefits of EU membership.
Stubb told the Eurelectric Power Summit that “the window of opportunity” for EU enlargement “is quite short because when the war in Ukraine ends and perhaps when the U.S. administration changes, I don’t know, then people are going to take their foot off the gas pedal and start heckling about unnecessary stuff again.”
Stubb added that “European strategic autonomy or European geopolitical power” is “often based on size and scale and I think the best European policy ever has been European enlargement.”
“In this moment, we need to think big and geographically, we need to enlarge or at least create memberships which are flexible enough to bring in a sum total of 40 European states — or even non-European,” Stubb said.
Finland’s president said the EU should look to its western flank and bring the U.K., which left the bloc in 2020, back into the fold, or at least “as close as possible
.”Canada should be considered as another option, Stubb said. “Wouldn’t it be lovely if Canada was the 28th state of the European Union rather than the 51st state of the United States?”
International
Iran Kuwait’s airport attack injures 63
Health ministry spokesman Abdullah al-Sanad said 25 ambulances were dispatched at Kuwait International Airport, adding that “63 injured individuals were received and distributed among hospitals.
Today Wednesday June 3: Kuwait International Airport was hit by Iranian drones.
An Iranian attack on Kuwait’s airport wounded at least 63 people on Wednesday, the health ministry said, with authorities earlier reporting one person killed.
Health ministry spokesman Abdullah al-Sanad said 25 ambulances were dispatched at Kuwait International Airport, adding that “63 injured individuals were received and distributed among hospitals.
This includes serious injuries… including head wounds, cerebral hemorrhages, amputations and injuries resulting from explosions.”
An airport source told AFP that the death in Kuwait was an Indian national at the airport.
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