Ambassador Yamamoto told journalist at the embassy in Addis Ababa that Ethiopia has been the most important country for the U.S. during the Bush administration and, he said, America wants to continue that.

“For example, the president had at least 12 presidential initiatives for Africa, and Ethiopia was one of few countries who were benefited from all of these.” Yamamoto said.

The ambassador indicated his county’s commitment to continue relations with Ethiopia is to ensure regional and continental peace and security and fight terrorism which his country strongly shares with Ethiopia.

“Ethiopia’s stability and future is important to the United States and important to the region and also important to the whole of Africa” he said.

Regarding the new Civic Society Organizations law, the ambassador indicated that his country recognizes the right of any country to make statement on its own law.

“The law is not unique by itself because every country has a law on civic society organizations to guide and control on the establishment, type and money,” he said.

But, the ambassador said, his country is concerned about the implementation of the law. “We are going to work with the government of Ethiopia on various issues of the law,” he said.

The ambassador said on the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that the two sides should look for their own solutions.

“The demarcation divides 100 towns, creating close to 60,000 potential refugees,” he said urging the parties to look into the fundamental problems to find out lasting solutions.

“Any solution come from outside doesn’t work. We can’t impose solution,” he added.

With regard to Somalia, the ambassador said the problem in Somalia is a security threat for Ethiopia and the region.

The primary solution and the answer lie on resolving problem inside Somalia, he said. “Resolving piracy is not the answer,” he added.

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