The leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea met on Sunday, hugging and smiling for cameras in Eritrea’s capital as officials on both sides heralded an end to a near 20-year military standoff, Reuters reported.

Eritrea’s long-time leader Isaias Afwerki welcomed recently elected Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at Asmara’s airport in the morning before they departed for the State House for talks.

The meeting was the first of its kind between leaders of the two Horn of Africa neighbours and rivals since they fought a war in the late 1990s in which around 80,000 people died.

“This historic official visit, and the summit that will take place ... heralds a new era of peace and cooperation,” Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel wrote on Twitter.