Asmara (Somalia Today) – Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has sharply questioned President Donald Trump’s global agenda, using his Independence Day address to attack decades of US dominance even as Washington signals a possible reset with one of Africa’s most isolated governments.
Speaking in Asmara on Saturday to mark Eritrea’s 35th Independence Day, Isaias said Trump’s “Make America Great Again” doctrine required “serious and careful assessment” and warned against “premature conclusions” about the direction of US policy.
“The phenomenon remains highly complex and heavy,” Isaias said, adding that policymakers should assess Trump’s return to the White House through “wealth, industrial output, technological dominance, military power, and sphere of influence.”
The remarks came weeks after reports said the Trump administration was preparing to remove sanctions on Eritrea, as Washington seeks greater influence along the Red Sea corridor and tries to prevent renewed conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Such a move would mark a striking turn in relations between Washington and Asmara, which have remained cold for decades. The Biden administration imposed sanctions in 2021 on Eritrea’s ruling party, military and senior officials over their role in Ethiopia’s Tigray war.
Isaias did not mention the reported sanctions relief or any US diplomatic overture.
‘US decline’
Instead, he accused successive US administrations of driving global instability through military intervention, debt accumulation and economic dominance.
He said America’s national debt had reached “alarming proportions” after years of “prolonged fiscal wastefulness” and claimed it now appeared to have approached $40 trillion.
Isaias said Trump’s recognition of America’s “trajectory and prospects of decline” could carry some significance, but questioned whether tariffs, tax cuts, industrial repatriation, control of rare minerals and “threats and intimidation” could reverse it.
“Where, and with whom, can these policies possibly succeed?” he asked.
The Eritrean leader also challenged US claims to military superiority, saying power could not be measured only through “dramatic episodes, intimidation, targeted killings” or possession of nuclear weapons, drones and missiles.
He said “no indicators” proved US dominance in areas such as artificial intelligence, and argued that Washington had often used military power for intimidation rather than legitimate global leadership.
Isaias also criticised what he described as the “offshoring” of industries, saying Washington had used the policy to entrench economic dominance by exploiting cheap labour and resources abroad.
Iran and Hormuz
The Eritrean president turned much of his criticism towards Iran and Venezuela, questioning the legal and moral basis for unilateral US action.
“Why is Iran alone prohibited?” he said, referring to Tehran’s nuclear programme. “What legal privilege has the United States to take unilateral military action?”
Isaias warned that tensions around the Strait of Hormuz reflected “grave miscalculation” and said the world should focus on averting wider instability rather than only debating whether any actor could close the waterway.
His comments contrasted sharply with the tone of a May 24 statement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who congratulated Eritrea on its independence anniversary and said the United States recognised “the importance of peace, security, and economic development in the Horn of Africa.”
Rubio said Washington looked forward to “continued dialogue” with Eritrea on regional stability and mutual interests.
Reports of a possible thaw have focused heavily on Eritrea’s long Red Sea coastline, which lies opposite Saudi Arabia and near some of the world’s most sensitive shipping routes.
The Red Sea has gained greater strategic importance since attacks on commercial shipping linked to the war in Gaza disrupted trade between the Mediterranean and Asia, forcing some vessels to divert around southern Africa.
Sanctions question
Any rapprochement would carry political risks.
Eritrea remains one of the world’s most closed states. It has not held a national election since independence from Ethiopia in 1993, and Isaias has ruled the country since then.
Rights groups have long accused Asmara of indefinite national service, repression of dissent and severe restrictions on civil liberties. Eritrea rejects outside criticism and often frames it as part of a broader campaign to weaken its sovereignty.
That tension sits at the centre of Washington’s reported outreach.
For the United States, Eritrea’s geography offers strategic value at a time of mounting competition around the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa.
For Asmara, sanctions relief could ease years of diplomatic isolation without forcing an open break from its anti-Western rhetoric.
Isaias’ speech gave no clear answer on whether Eritrea would reciprocate the US overtures.
Instead, he maintained his long-standing criticism of the international order, saying the current global system rested on exploitation and “zero-sum paradigms.”
“Transitioning from the old and exhausted global order… is no longer optional,” he said, calling for a new system based on “fairness and justice.”
Regional crises
Isaias, on the other hand, devoted a smaller part of his speech to the Horn of Africa, describing the situations in Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan as “deeply precarious” and in urgent need of attention.
He reflected on Eritrea’s earlier efforts to transform the Intergovernmental Authority on Development from a bloc focused on drought and desertification into a broader framework for regional development and cooperation.
Those ambitions, he said, “did not come to fruition.”
He blamed the region’s crises on failed nation-building, corruption, warlordism and foreign interference.
“Instead of building citizen-centred nationhood, societies are polarised along vertical ethnic, clan, and religious lines, thereby stoking hatred and civil strife,” Isaias said.
He described foreign intervention and “subservience to external interests” as the region’s most damaging problem, and called for the “immediate termination of external interventions and funding” as a condition for stability.
The message appeared to reject the kind of outside influence Washington is trying to rebuild.
But Isaias also avoided any direct response to the latest US overtures, leaving Asmara’s position unclear as Washington weighs whether to pursue a broader reset with Eritrea.
