01:26Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his efforts to help the country join BRICS during their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Saturday.
"Mr President, without your support, Ethiopia cannot be a member of BRICS. We are always grateful for that. We know what you have done, and we're grateful. I'm sure one day we'll pay back when the time comes," he said.
The prime minister also mentioned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's recent visit to Ethiopia, joking that the Russian top diplomat had returned from the trip looking younger.
"Honourable [Sergei] Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, came to Ethiopia. We have sent him back with a seven-year discount. He was old when he came, and he came back younger because we are in 2019 [according to the Ethiopian calendar]," he said.
Ethiopia uses its own calendar, which runs seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar and has 13 months. The country celebrated the start of its millennium in September 2007.
The two-day summit opened on Saturday under India's BRICS chairship, bringing together leaders and senior representatives from the bloc's 11 member countries.
The summit runs from September 12 to 13 under the theme 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability'.
'We are always grateful!' - Abiy thanks Putin for backing Ethiopia's BRICS accession
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his efforts to help the country join BRICS during their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Saturday.
"Mr President, without your support, Ethiopia cannot be a member of BRICS. We are always grateful for that. We know what you have done, and we're grateful. I'm sure one day we'll pay back when the time comes," he said.
The prime minister also mentioned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's recent visit to Ethiopia, joking that the Russian top diplomat had returned from the trip looking younger.
"Honourable [Sergei] Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, came to Ethiopia. We have sent him back with a seven-year discount. He was old when he came, and he came back younger because we are in 2019 [according to the Ethiopian calendar]," he said.
Ethiopia uses its own calendar, which runs seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar and has 13 months. The country celebrated the start of its millennium in September 2007.
The two-day summit opened on Saturday under India's BRICS chairship, bringing together leaders and senior representatives from the bloc's 11 member countries.
The summit runs from September 12 to 13 under the theme 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability'.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his efforts to help the country join BRICS during their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Saturday.
"Mr President, without your support, Ethiopia cannot be a member of BRICS. We are always grateful for that. We know what you have done, and we're grateful. I'm sure one day we'll pay back when the time comes," he said.
The prime minister also mentioned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's recent visit to Ethiopia, joking that the Russian top diplomat had returned from the trip looking younger.
"Honourable [Sergei] Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, came to Ethiopia. We have sent him back with a seven-year discount. He was old when he came, and he came back younger because we are in 2019 [according to the Ethiopian calendar]," he said.
Ethiopia uses its own calendar, which runs seven to eight years behind the Gregorian calendar and has 13 months. The country celebrated the start of its millennium in September 2007.
The two-day summit opened on Saturday under India's BRICS chairship, bringing together leaders and senior representatives from the bloc's 11 member countries.
The summit runs from September 12 to 13 under the theme 'Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability'.