The following events detail foreign affairs dominated by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi from his presidency until his death in 2012.
Eritrea
Meles relations with Eritrea were in good terms as the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) helped the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) to overthrow the Derg. During the Transitional Government, Meles helped Eritrea to secede with referendum resulted in 99.83% in favor, with a 98.5% turnout. The independence was declared on 27 April 1993. This was the first time of Eritrea since War on Independence in 1961. On 28 May, Eritrea was admitted to the United Nations.
The relationship between EPLF and TPLF fluctuated in some degree, especially during the Ethiopian Civil War. By 1980s and 1990s, TPLF gained weighted power in military but were its varied ideology gradually defected from EPLF by 1985. In 1998, the disputed Badme territory between these two countries boundary aggravated the relations and culminated in the Eritrean–Ethiopian War, which killed ten thousand people. In December 2000, Ethiopia and Eritrea signed Algiers Agreement which finalize the war and created a pair of binding judicial commissions, the Eritrea–Ethiopia Border Commission and the Eritrean–Ethiopian Claims Commissions, to oversee the disputed border and related claims. While Ethiopia rejected demarcation of border, Eritrea wanted to demarcate in accordance with the commission. Since then, there was elevated tensions with border conflict and stalemate what is described "war footing" and "no-war-no-peace" with absence of foreign and domestic policy domination.
Eritrea tends to support Ethiopian opposition groups like the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) to undermine Ethiopia's influence in the disputed region. This has been marked by Eritrean training and finance provision to the armed militias. The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia reported an embargo in Eritrea, along with Ethiopia and other states, on Somalia. In late 2008, the Ethiopian Border Commission (EEBC) without delimitation of the border in November 2007, the United Nations Missions in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) terminated its mandate in 2008, and Eritrea seized the Temporary Security Zone. Ethiopia remained in control of EEBC's demarcation border in the Eritrean territory side advancing through Badme, which resulted mass mobilization and high concentration of troops in the area.
Egypt
In May 2010, Ethiopia with five African countries signed the Nile Basin Initiative: Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi despite Egypt and Sudan objected as a breach of the 1929 treaty. In the same month, Meles told to Egyptian delegation that he would freeze consideration of the colonial era treaty, which gives 90% of Nile water to both countries. In November 2010, Meles said in an interview "Egypt could not win a war with Ethiopia over the River Nile and is also supporting rebel groups in an attempt to destabilize the Horn of Africa nation." Egypt called it a "national security" issue. Meles claimed that Egypt supported rebel groups in Ethiopia and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak dismissed the allegation.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project inaugurated on 2 April 2011, expecting to produce 15,000 megawatts of power within 10 years, spending 12 billion dollars of strategy to improve power generating capabilities. Meles told at press conference "We are planning to carry out a number of important projects, including a major project on the Nile." Egypt worried the dam would affect water levels in river shared by a number of countries, which preferred negotiations with Ethiopia. In September 2011, Meles visited Egypt to discuss the sharing of water from the Nile river with head of ruling military council, Hussein Tantawi, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr. He claimed that GERD could bring agreement about equitable use of the Nile as the project reduce evaporation, regulate water flow, and provide cheap energy to downstream countries. Meles assured that "the benefits that will accrue from the dam will by no means be restricted to Ethiopia."