Somaliland has the right to engage in foreign relations with other nations and intends to deepen ties with Taiwan, the self-ruling east African state’s top diplomat said at a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday.
“As a sovereign nation, Somaliland’s right to engage in peaceful and friendly foreign relations with all other nations is enshrined in international law,” Somaliland Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Essa Kayd said at the meeting.
Kayd is leading a delegation that arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday and includes several ministers.
Photo: AFP / Presidential Office
“All coercive or threatening measures to deny such collaboration between international partners not only represent an affront to the principle, protocols and norms on which the international order is based, but do little to promote the peace and security that the region and the world require,” he said.
SEEKING ALLIES
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 after years of conflict. It has offices in about a dozen countries, according to its foreign ministry’s Web site, but does not have formal diplomatic relations with any nation.
Somaliland has stepped up its efforts to seek support from other countries, such as the US, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi plans to visit Washington next month to explore areas for bilateral collaboration.
Its relations with Taiwan have been warming over the past few years, despite strong objection from China and Somalia, which claims sovereignty over Somaliland.
Taipei opened its representative office in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, on Aug. 17, 2020, while Somaliland opened a reciprocal office in Taipei on Sept. 9, 2020.
The Somaliland delegation’s visit to Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday marks “an important milestone” and serves as a testament to the strong and cordial relationship between the two sides, Kayd said.
This visit “signifies our mutual determination and resolve to upscale, expand and deepen our friendship and cooperation to new heights for the mutual benefits of our two countries,” Kayd said.
Tsai lauded Taiwan’s newly forged ties with Somaliland as one of her administration’s diplomatic breakthroughs.
AFRICA PROJECT
Both sides have developed extensive cooperation in agriculture, fisheries, education, energy and other areas, Tsai said, adding that Somaliland’s strategic location plays an important role in Taiwan’s implementation of its Africa Project.
She was referring to efforts launched by the government in 2017 to promote business and trade links with Africa, where it has only one diplomatic ally, Eswatini.
Kayd also pitched trade and investment opportunities to Taiwanese officials, saying that Somaliland has rich natural resources, such as hydrocarbon, oil, natural gas and coal, as well as other rare minerals.
The government welcomes Taiwanese companies to invest and do business in Somaliland, Kayd said, adding that it was ready to provide favorable financial and non-financial incentives.
“We are encouraging maximizing trade and investment potential rather than aid dependency,” he added.
Taiwan has been keen to show it is a selfless development partner for Somaliland and last month donated 150,000 doses of its domestically developed Medigen COVID-19 vaccine.
The Somaliland delegation is to meet with top foreign and economic officials, as well as representatives from state-run oil supplier, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
OVERWHELMING SUPPORT: The bill with US$2 billion in Foreign Military Financing Program funds and US$1.9 billion to replenish defense articles passed the House 385-34 Taiwan is to continue working with the US to ensure peace in the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday after the US House of Representatives approved a US$95 billion foreign aid package with funding for Taiwan. The bills were passed with bipartisan support in a rare Saturday session after votes had been delayed for months by House Republicans. After clearing the House, the bills — containing US$8 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region, along with US$60.8 billion for Kyiv, and US$26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones — would be combined into a
The navy next month is expected to commission into service two more domestically built Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes, a source said yesterday. The Hsu Chiang (旭江, PGG-621) and the Wu Chiang (武江, PGG-623) would be officially commissioned in a ceremony early next month, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The corvettes, launched in February and June last year respectively, were delivered to the navy in February. They are the third and fourth Tuo Chiang-class stealth missile corvettes to be produced. The Tuo Chiang-class corvette is a domestically designed and manufactured class of fast and stealthy multipurpose corvette built for the