The European Union's Ethiopian envoy has stressed the importance of international cooperation in resolving the conflict in Tigray.

Pekka Haavisto, Finland's foreign minister said in a wide-ranging interview with Arab News in Riyadh on Sunday that the EU should work with Saudi Arabia because the kingdom has "healthy relations with all parties in Africa."

Haavisto also called the new Saudi peace plan for Yemen "a very promising initiative" and reiterated his criticism of the Houthis' deliberate attacks against civilians in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Haavisto is visiting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE before heading to Ethiopia on his second mission as an EU envoy, as directed by EU High Representative Josep Borrell.

“Global cooperation in this topic is very important,” he said, citing the dangers of a new conflict in an area already rife with them, including tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia and disputes among Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

“The European Union was quick to respond to the conflict in Tigray, Ethiopia, and condemned the use of violence,” he said. “It was quite a concern about the new wave of refugees, which was partially coming from Sudan.” In early February, Haavisto visited refugee camps on the Sudanese side, in addition to meeting with Ethiopian leaders in December and February. At the time, it was unclear if Eritrean troops were involved in the Tigray events or whether militias were causing havoc.

“We also requested for complete humanitarian access to all regions of Tigray, followed by a full investigation into human rights abuses, mediation between the parties, and cessation of hostilities from Ethiopian leaders. This was also our message to Eritrea, a neighboring nation. We also requested that Eritrean troops be removed from Tigray." Haavisto spoke to Arab News.

According to Haavisto, the EU team and Saudi officials exchanged notes on the situation in the broader region during their meetings and planned to keep sharing views on developments as well as discuss potential opportunities for closer cooperation.

According to him, the EU team also met with officials from Saudi humanitarian organizations. “We must have a constructive view of the entire continent to build and assess those in need of humanitarian assistance,” he said. “We discussed the situation in Somalia, which is also a hot topic in African affairs.”

According to Haavisto, the Kingdom and the EU have a lot of opportunities to collaborate. “We have praised Saudi Arabia's essential role in the peace accord between Eritrea and Ethiopia, as well as Saudi Arabia's unwavering support for Sudan during its transition. Saudi Arabia is a country with strong relations with all parties in Africa, so the EU must collaborate with them.”

During the talks in Riyadh, the possibility of a time of peace in Yemen during Ramadan was addressed. “The Saudi leadership has discussed several times how necessary it is to have peace in the coming month of Ramadan,” Haavisto said, noting that the holy month is only two weeks away. He also believes that the international community should send a unified message to the Houthis to get them to the negotiating table. We should not tolerate further violence, and everyone should think about the civilians in Yemen.

More than 40 Ethiopian migrants were slaughtered in a Houthi-run detention center in Yemen on March 7. “We have condemned all of the Houthi attacks against (Yemeni) civilians and innocent civilians in Saudi Arabia, as well as the extension of the war to other areas,” Haavisto said in response to the atrocity. It's completely unacceptable. On this question, we support the work and proposal of US envoy Martin Griffiths. We've taken notice of the Saudi Arabian government's very positive initiative on a peace agreement. This is the time to urge both parties to refrain from any more violence or bombings so that a peaceful settlement can be reached. I believe this is a war that has dragged on for too long.

“First and foremost, it is important to note that the EU is Saudi Arabia's second-largest trading partner,” Haaavisto said of EU-Saudi ties. So, in the private sector, we have a lot of shared interests to grow.

We've been paying close attention to the Saudi Vision 2030, the reform of Saudi society — especially in terms of women's roles — issues of human rights, labor law reform, and so on, which are all positive steps toward the future.

We want to work together more closely on regional issues. We are well aware of Saudi Arabia's positive initiatives, such as the Red Sea Council, for collaboration on Red Sea issues. We were also very impressed with Saudi Arabia's recent "green" initiatives.

The European Union is gearing up for the forthcoming COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow, and meeting the climate targets is crucial. Both the EU and Saudi Arabia are involved in emerging environmentally friendly technology and energy products.

Haavisto also spoke about the global battle against the coronavirus, saying that it wasn't enough for people to be vaccinated if their neighbors weren't. “We often use this kind of vaccine solidarity term,” Haavisto told Arab News, “that it wasn't enough that you are vaccinated yourself.”

According to Haavisto, the planet needs a global public awareness campaign emphasizing the importance of vaccination in the fight against the pandemic. More coronavirus mutations cannot be tolerated in countries where the public-health epidemic is not under control. He said that mutations could only be stopped if the whole planet was vaccinated and that the EU and Saudi Arabia could collaborate. Europe and Saudi Arabia should collaborate is in the field of health diplomacy and health security.

According to Haaavisto, water shortage is indeed a very critical problem in this region. The measures being taken to mitigate the effects of climate change. He recalls visiting Sanaa many years ago, before the war in Yemen, and hearing that the city may be one of the first capitals in the country to run out of water. People spoke about the need for innovative ways to save water and produce drinking water in environmentally sustainable ways at the time, by using solar and other technologies.