His ecumenical trip to India to meet Baselios Thoma Didymos I, Catholicos of the East in December 2008, strengthened the communion of Ethiopian and Indian Orthodox Churches. On 26 June 2009, the Italian press claimed that Abune Paulos along with a man claiming to be a son of the late Prince Makonnen, Duke of Harar and Duke Amedeo of Aosta, would come forward at the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome with the announcement that the true Ark of the Covenant, which has supposedly been kept in secret at St. Mary's of Zion in Ethiopia, would be unveiled to the public to view for the first time in history in a museum being built in Axum. The announcement was never made; instead the Patriarch immediately denied that any such event had ever been planned. The person that the Italian press had identified as the Ethiopian Prince was subsequently revealed as not being a recognized member of the former Imperial family, but rather a person claiming to be the illegitimate son of the late prince. The involvement of the Duke of Aosta in the affair was also called into question. The cornerstone for a museum at Axum was indeed laid by Patriarch Abune Paulos, but there are no plans to display or house the Ark of the Covenant there.