The leaders of Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea – countries that all have tense relations with Ethiopia – met in the Eritrean capital Asmara.
An Eritrean statement concluding the summit referred to “respect for the sovereignty… and territorial integrity of the countries in the region.”
This could be interpreted as a pointed reference to landlocked Ethiopia’s ambitions for access to a seaport, but the country was not specifically mentioned.
A recent diplomatic disagreement has seen Somalia forge closer ties with Egypt and Eritrea, both of which have long-standing disputes with Ethiopia.
There were fears that the growing tension could develop into some kind of conflict.
“This is an axis against (the Ethiopian capital) Addis Ababa,” Hassan Khannenje, director of the Horn International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the BBC program Focus on Africa.
“I think it is an attempt to unite hatred and increase pressure against Addis Ababa.”
A photo released by Eritrea in the aftermath of the meeting shows President Isaias Afwerki shaking hands with his counterparts from Egypt, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, and Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
A statement said the three men had “agreed… to strengthen Somali state institutions to meet various internal and external challenges and to enable the Somali National Federal Army to confront terrorism in all its forms offer”.
This was Sisi’s first visit to Asmara, while the Somali president had already been three times this year.
Ethiopia has been a loyal supporter of the government in Mogadishu for years in its fight against the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabab.
But Somalia is furious that Ethiopia signed a preliminary agreement early this year with the self-declared republic of Somaliland to lease part of the coastline. Somalia considers Somaliland part of its territory.
Meanwhile, Addis Ababa and Cairo have been at loggerheads for more than a decade over Ethiopia’s construction of a massive hydroelectric dam on the Nile River. Egypt sees this as a possible threat to the amount of water flowing through the river on which the country depends.
Last month, an Egyptian ship has delivered a significant shipment of military equipment to Somalia. This came after two Egyptian military planes landed in Somalia’s capital in August carrying weapons and ammunition.
In 2018, it was hoped that the rift between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which followed the bloody border war two decades earlier, was over.
It was then that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed a “declaration of peace and friendship” with Eritrea.
The agreement won him the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
But ties between the Horn of Africa neighbors have deteriorated again following the end of the two-year civil war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which borders Eritrea.
Asmara was an ally of the Ethiopian government in that conflict, but was lukewarm about the agreement that ended the fighting in November 2022.
Relations were further deteriorated by Abiy’s statement last year that his country wanted to secure access to a Red Sea port.
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