Diplomatic contact was first established between the two countries at the United Nations in 1947, when Yugoslavia supported Ethiopian claims to Eritrea (the end of the British Military Administration and the establishment of the Federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea) and Ethiopia supported Yugoslav claims over the Free Territory of Trieste.

[1] During Tito's visit to Ethiopia in 1970, as a part of his tour to Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, United Arab Republic and Libya, the Yugoslav president and the Ethiopian emperor discussed mutual aims within the Non-Aligned Movement and expressed satisfaction with the end of the Nigerian Civil War, in whose resolution the Organisation of African Unity played a prominent and positive role.

[4] With the initiation of the Soviet support, the USA increased pressure on Belgrade to stop Yugoslav transfers to the Mengistu regime, which Washington perceived as being in direct breach of the 1951 Mutual Defense Aid Program, ultimately leading to the waning of Yugoslavia’s influence in Ethiopia.

[5] Yugoslav exhibition of frescoes copies from the Our Lady of Ljeviš Serbian Orthodox church was sent to Addis Ababa in 1967.

[5] In February of 1988 weekly magazine Mladina from SR Slovenia published a report on Yugoslav hypocrisy in Ethiopia stating that country's military-industrial complex was trying to resolve Yugoslavia’s economic crisis by selling weapons under the pretense of non-aligned solidarity to a country where more than 5 million people had already died from hunger.