Ethiopia has formally submitted a request to the United Nations to lift a decade-old sanctions imposed on Eritrea.
Returning from his Asmara historic visit on Monday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed handed a letter to visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Addis Ababa.
The UN Security Council imposed sanctions against Eritrea in 2009 for an alleged tie with the Somalia extremist groups.
Military service
Mr Guterres expressed his hope that the Security Council would soon lift the sanctions.
“If the reasons that led to the sanctions will no longer exist ... they will naturally become obsolete,” Mr Guterres told reporters.
The sanctions were primarily economic and travel ban on targeted military service members and selected officials.
In 2016, a UN investigation team issued a report declaring there was no conclusive evidence to punish Eritrea for alleged ties with Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militants.