Isaias’s Unreciprocated Love for the US: Looking East while Moving West

 

Isaias’s Unreciprocated Love for the US: Looking East while Moving West

Isaias has always been seeking a special relationship with the US, but all previous administrations ignored him, cultivating relations with the larger antagonistic neighbour, Ethiopia. Isaias was regarded as an unreliable partner who waged wars with his neighbours. His overtures to China and Russia were only a means of getting US attention. The 2^nd term of the Trump administration seems to reverse the course for new geopolitical considerations. The release in 2025 of some evangelical Christians detained in Eritrea for many years may have been a prerequisite for the lifting of sanctions. If the US administration were to use Eritrea for launching attacks against the Houthis in Yemen, Eritrea may end up being a target in the proxy wars in the region.

Isaias revels in the anti-American tough-guy brand he had cultivated, although he once supported the US war in Iraq, offering it a base. In the build-up to Gulf War 2, Isaias recruited the Beltway lobbyists Greenberg Traurig (at an annualised cost of $600,000) to drum up support for a US naval base in Eritrea. Under the slogan ‘Why Not Eritrea?’, Greenberg Traurig – the Eritrea campaign was headed by now disgraced ex-con, the conservative PR star, Jack Abramoff – sought to make the case that as a pro-American half-Christian, half-Muslim nation surrounded by Muslim theocracies.

More recently, Isaias sealed his position on March 2, 2022, among an isolated club of states, including Iran, North Korea, Russia and Syria, when Eritrea voted against a UNGA resolution Resolution ES‑11/1 condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This didn't surprise observers of Eritrea as its foreign minister visited South Ossetia and Crimea after Russia occupied both territories.

During Independence Day addresses over the last few years, the president primarily delved into current global dynamics, denoting them as a realm dominated by what he labelled as “forces of hegemony and domination,” with a focus on China and Russia, and advocating for a fresh global paradigm.

The regime’s relationship with China and Russia has been notably amicable. On 3 August 2022, Eritrea condemned former US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, regarding it as a deplorable act in contravention of international law, the norms and provisions of State sovereignty, as well as the ‘One-China’ policy and the process of Chinese reunification. It was the only African state to come out so unambiguously in China’s defence.

During a visit to China in 2023,  Isaias defended China’s loan policy in Africa and supported a China-led new world order of cooperation. During his visit to Russia that same year, he stated that the war against Russia did not start with the Ukraine war, but rather began thirty years ago, during the Cold War, to contain Russia. In his meeting with Putin, he asked him to lead the war against Western hegemony.

A delegation from the Russian navy, led by Vice Admiral Vladimir Kasatonov, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, undertook a five-day visit to Eritrea’s Massawa port in April 2024.

Isaias began his political career with relations to the CIA and may end his career there, finally being embraced by the US, his dream love.