Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Eritrea on Thursday for a surprise one-day visit, the Horn of Africa country’s government announced that it does not condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, AFP reports.

The visit was not included in the African tour program of the head of Russian diplomacy, the second in six months on the continent, during which he also visited South Africa, Eswatini and Angola.

Lavrov met with President Isaias Afeworki, who has ruled the country, one of the most closed in the world, with an iron fist since its independence from Ethiopia in 1993.

“Discussions were focused on the dynamics of the war in Ukraine and strengthening bilateral relations in the fields of energy, mining, information technology, education and health care,” Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel said on Twitter.

Eritrea was one of five countries that voted against a UN resolution condemning the March 2022 invasion of Ukraine, along with Russia, Belarus, Syria and North Korea.

His army is also accused of numerous abuses against civilians in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where it supported the Ethiopian army against Tigray rebels in a bitter conflict between November 2020 and November 2022.

Those troops, which have been present in the region since the start of the war, began withdrawing late last week, the US and Ethiopian governments announced.