The Treaty of Friendship, Conciliation and Arbitration between Ethiopia and Italy was signed at Addis Ababa on 2 August 1928, in duplicate, the Italian and Amharic texts of identical tenor. Plenipotentiaries: Giuliano Cora, Italian minister plenipotentiary, for Victor Emmanuel III, and Ras Tafari Makonnen, heir to the throne and regent, for Empress Zewditu. Article 6: registration with the League of Nations; ratification; exchange of instruments at Addis Ababa as soon as possible. Article 7: a term of twenty years from the exchange, then renewable from year to year. LNTS No. 2158, vol. 94, p. 413. It is not the 1889 Treaty of Wuchale, nor the road convention signed the same day (LNTS No. 2159), nor the 1936 annexation.

The preamble seeks a firmer friendship and the widening of economic relations. Article 1: constant peace and perpetual friendship between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ethiopian Empire. Article 2: the Parties undertake not to take, under any pretext, any action which might harm the independence of the other, and to safeguard their respective interests.

Article 3: the expansion and prosperity of existing commerce. Article 4: Italian citizens, subjects and protégés established in Ethiopia, and Ethiopians established in Italy and its colonies, are bound by the laws of the State of residence; for Italians in Ethiopia the provisions of Article 7 of the Franco-Ethiopian treaty of 10 January 1908 continue to apply so long as that treaty remains in force — a framework, not a consular handbook.

Article 5: questions not settled by ordinary diplomatic means shall be submitted to conciliation or arbitration, without resort to force; later notes on the choice of arbitrators. It is not a procedure code. Wikipedia conflates this treaty with the same-day road convention (Assab–Dessie road and a free zone at Assab); the present instrument has only the seven articles of friendship and arbitration.

Cover: St George’s Cathedral in Addis Ababa, the capital of signature; we do not claim the Villa Italia room. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928; Traité d'amitié entre l'Italie et l'Ethiopie.