Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te said on Thursday, July 24, that the self-ruled island and Somaliland were “writing a new chapter” in relations after meeting visiting Somaliland foreign minister Abdirahman Dahir Adam.
Lai also announced the signing of a coast guard agreement with Somaliland and the “expansion into areas like maritime security and blue economy”.
“Our nations are writing a new chapter in our partnership and showing resilience of democratic alliances,” he said.
Adam said earlier that he was in Taiwan for a “productive visit focused on strengthening our cooperation and advancing shared interests”.
Lai’s office said the Taiwanese leader thanked the Somaliland government for its “longstanding, staunch support for Taiwan-Somaliland relations”.
“The president mentioned that this year marks the fifth anniversary of Taiwan and Somaliland’s mutual establishment of representative offices and that our exchanges in various areas have yielded significant results,” the office added.
“He expressed hope for continuing to deepen our partnership, advancing our bilateral friendship and fruitful cooperation.”
Lai described Somaliland as “a beacon of democracy in the Horn of Africa”, according to a translation of his remarks provided by his office.
“I want to once again congratulate Somaliland on successfully holding presidential and political party elections last November, which garnered praise from the international community,” Lai said.
“At that time, I appointed deputy minister of foreign affairs François Chihchung Wu to serve as special envoy and lead a delegation to attend the inauguration of president Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi,” he added.
Lai accused what he called “authoritarian regimes” of applying “new forms of coercion as they intensify suppression of Taiwan’s and Somaliland’s international participation”.
“In response, our two sides must continue to deepen our partnership and demonstrate the resilience of democratic alliances, as well as our staunch commitment to defending our values,” he said.
‘One-China’ policy
Adam’s trip was his first to Taiwan as Somaliland’s foreign minister.
Somaliland and Taiwan established formal diplomatic ties in 2020 when they set up representative offices in each other’s respective capitals, Hargeisa and Taipei.
This is despite strong opposition from the governments of China and Somalia, which claim the self-ruled territories.
Somalia’s federal government has repeatedly expressed support for Beijing’s one-China principle, which Beijing has reciprocated.
In April, it imposed a ban on the transit and entry of all Taiwanese passport holders, with Taipei accusing China of pressuring the Horn of Africa nation into taking the measure.
Somalia’s civil aviation authority said at the time that Taiwanese passports would no longer be valid for entry or transit through Somalia starting April 30 due to the Horn of Africa country’s adherence to the one-China principle.
China said it “highly” appreciated the ban.
Somaliland declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 at the onset of a brutal civil war.
Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is the only African Union member state that maintains official diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
