[1] Designed to "promote regional peace and security" in the Horn of Africa, the agreement was signed in Asmara by Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed, Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo) and Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki.
The agreement states that given their "close ties of geography, history, culture and religion as well as vital common interests" and "respecting each other's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity", the three countries agree to cooperate and "build close political, economic, social, cultural and security ties", coordinate to "promote regional peace and security" and establish a Joint High-Level Committee to coordinate the implementation.
Plaut suggested that the January meeting, together with bilateral meetings by Abiy to an Eritrean military base in July 2020, Farmaajo to Asmara on 4 October 2020, and Isaias to the Harar Meda Airport air base in Bishoftu on 14–15 October 2020 were used by the three leaders to discuss and prepare strategy for the Tigray War.
[5] In 2021, political scientist Goitom Gebreluel described the 2018 agreement as having the "aim of moulding the regional order according to [the] domestic political ideals" of the three leaders, each of whom were "opposed to federalism, the accommodation of ethnonational diversity, and institutionalised governance" and favoured themselves as powerful leaders running centralised states.
He viewed the agreement as destabilising the Horn of Africa, leading to conflicts including the Tigray War.