In 1903, the United States and one of the world's oldest nations, Ethiopia, established a relationship. Emperor Menelik II described the day as "… beginnings of a relationship which will have some place in history", as quoted in a paper presented by Professor Negussay Ayele of Cornell University, to mark the 100th anniversary of that occasion.
The historic relationship is, in this week, to witness a rare event with the first visit of a sitting president of the United States paying a visit to Ethiopia. President Barack Hussein Obama's visit to Ethiopia follows what happens to be his first visit as President, to his father's homeland, Kenya.
Ethio-American relations started at the insistence of Robert P. Skinner, an American diplomat in France, who urged the US State Department to establish an official American presence in Ethiopia. The policy initiative was based on the strategic location of Ethiopia to the Red Sea route and the disadvantaged start-line position of the US compared to the colonial European presence in the region. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Skinner as the first Commissioner Plenipotentiary for a commercial/diplomatic mission to the court of Emperor Menelik II.
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