Kenya’s President William Ruto is in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, at the start “of a two-day official visit”, Eritrea’s information minister has tweeted.
Although a possible visit was mentioned last week when Eritrea’s foreign minister was in Kenya, the timing of this trip was unexpected.
There was no announcement from the Kenyan presidency that this visit was going ahead, and no agenda has been made public.
Relations between Eritrea and Kenya have been strained in the past.
Last week, Eritrea’s ministry of information said that when he met Foreign Minister Osman Saleh, Mr Ruto had “expressed the need for countries in the region to work jointly for realising peace and stability as well as political and economic developments”.
Eritrea has been criticised for its participation in the two-year civil war in neighbouring Ethiopia, where it backed the federal government against the Tigrayans.
A peace deal is now being implemented but Tigrayans say that Eritrean troops have still not withdrawn from the region.
Kenya’s former President Uhuru Kenyatta was one of the African Union-appointed brokers of the peace deal signed in South Africa last month.