CAIRO - One of the biggest achievements so far in the recent revolution, which toppled the Mubarak regime, is the improvement in Egyptian-Ethiopian relations. Receiving the Egyptian delegation who visited Addis Ababa this week to help develop the two countries' ties, the Ethiopian President praised the revolutionaries for peacefully ousting Mubarak and his regime. He also praised them for ‘revealing the core values and qualities of the Egyptian people and their civilisation'. Such statements by the Ethiopian leader have inspired optimism among Egyptians at home. The former regime's miscalculated diplomacy had a bad effect on the relations between the two countries, both Nile Basin states. Their ties were badly strained when the Mubarak regime suspiciously refused to listen to the grievances of certain African countries, which badly need Egypt's help with projects to improve the lives of their people. The praise showered by Ethiopian officials on the heads of Egypt's young revolutionaries surely points to Mubarak's regime being to blame for troubling the waters with other Nile Basin states, to the extent that Egypt's quota of the river water was threatened through a controversial pact signed last year. As part of well-received public diplomacy, the Egyptian delegation who went to Ethiopia had earlier made a successful visit to Uganda, having also been informed about the former regime's role in the strained Egyptian-Ugandan relations. Egypt is now confidently tucking its head again under the African umbrella – after long decades in the wilderness, exposed to the elements.
