As war and delayed elections dim Western enthusiasm for Somaliland, the two territories are ratcheting up their collaboration.
The international standing of Somaliland has not been great this year.
Following its de facto independence from Somalia in 1991, the nation built a reputation as a “oasis of stability” in the Horn of Africa by holding democratic elections and disarming its military despite its lack of international recognition.
However, the presidential elections that were supposed to take place in 2017 were postponed, and in February, long-standing clan rivalries exploded into conflict in the area of Las Anod (Laascaanood), which resulted in scores of casualties and forced tens of thousands of inhabitants to evacuate.
The United States has voiced worry over the “democratic backsliding” while the United Nations has asked for a probe into the murders.
Taiwan, a different independent country that is not recognized internationally, has supported Somaliland.
“I would want to remind my American colleagues that Somaliland is a young democracy. Allen C. Lou, Taiwan’s representative in Somaliland, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that you need to allow them time to mature.
Taiwan shocked onlookers by proclaiming “highly official relations” with Somaliland in 2020 after losing a number of diplomatic allies to China in the previous several years.
Since then, Taipei has developed a little presence in the region, with a few dozen people dispersed among its Representative Office, Technical Mission, Medical Mission, and a newly opened branch of the state-owned CPC oil business of Taiwan.
According to Lou, Somaliland has practical difficulties that will take years to resolve because to its distinctive election system (which requires three national parties to quell clan conflicts) and difficulty to properly register voters in the Las Anod area. Lou also references a piece from the American Enterprise Institute to support his allegation that China is interfering in Las Anod, although experts in the area dispute this assertion.
These opinions are quite similar to what the Somaliland administration is saying.
“We elect our presidents in Somaliland. However, we also choose our parties in advance. Elections are difficult to have so often. The cost of elections is high, and we also have to spend money defending our nation from outside dangers, according to Mohammed Hagi, the Somaliland representative in Taiwan. While it is a weakness, the failure to hold elections on time is due to technical and budgetary issues more than a lack of political will. We also don’t get anything from other nations to aid with elections, save from Taiwan [which has given us technology like iris scanners].”
Given that Taiwan’s diplomatic presence depends on Somaliland’s de facto independence, it is not unexpected that their positions are so similar.
According to Jethro Norman, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies who specializes in conflict and humanitarianism in East Africa, Taiwan has far more specific and politically significant bilateral relations than other nations with diplomatic representation in Somaliland, such as the [United Kingdom], Denmark, or [United Arab Emirates]. In the lack of international recognition, relationships between the two are both a show of solidarity and a means of exercising sovereignty.
Norman claims that the Las Anod dispute poses a danger to Somaliland’s claim to independence.
There are tribes in Somaliland’s eastern areas, like Las Anod, that would rather be a part of Somalia than Somaliland. The Somaliland administration may need to give up part of its sovereignty in order to resolve the crisis, which might harm relations with Taiwan given that Somalia recognizes China.
The alliance gives the island a second official footing in Africa (after Eswatini), enabling it to assist Taiwanese expatriates in East Africa, confront China’s military presence there, and keep an eye on key trade routes.
“John Bolton said how the balance of power in the Horn of Africa, which sits astride major shipping routes, will shift in favor of China if China [expands its] military presence in Djibouti,” added Lou. We protect these routes with Somaliland’s assistance. We’re attempting to prevent China from taking control of the Red Sea.
Despite the absence of official diplomatic ties, Taiwan has a tight connection with the US, which is required by law to provide the self-governing island the tools to defend itself. The security and diplomatic ties were further enhanced by the Taiwan Policy Act, which was approved at the end of 2022.
Relations have improved as Beijing has put more pressure on President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration, which Beijing accuses of being a “secessionist” who wants independence but who maintains that the people of Taiwan should be the ones to determine their destiny.
A rising concern about China’s political and economic aspirations in the US has been fueled by the escalating tension across the Taiwan Strait.
Bashir Goth, Somaliland’s envoy in Washington, has benefited from framing Somaliland’s significance within the framework of those intricate ties.
Goth said Al Jazeera, “People in Washington pay us attention when they know that we insure against Chinese influence in the region and have relations with Taiwan.”
Goth claims that Somaliland’s relations with Taiwan gave the nation’s attempts to get US recognition impetus and made it possible for the territory’s president to go to Washington in March.
Around the time of the visit, three US senators introduced the Somaliland Partnership Act, which would have formalized relations between the two countries in a manner akin to the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which requires the US to “preserve and promote extensive, close and friendly commercial, cultural, and other relations between the people of the United States and the people of Taiwan.”
The National Defense Authorization Act for FY2023, which was approved in conjunction with the bill’s provisions about reporting to Congress on Somaliland cooperation, adopted some of the bill’s requirements. Since then, representatives from the state department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have paid visits to the Taiwan Representative Office and the government of Somaliland. Additionally, as part of its planning for the Justified Accord training exercise in 2023, the US military assessed the Port of Berbera.
Despite the events in February, US interaction with Somaliland and Somaliland’s demand for de facto recognition from Washington have been more subdued.
Goth said, “Our colleagues in Congress are prepared to review the Somaliland Partnership Act, but we need to wait for more favorable conditions, maybe after the holding of elections in Somaliland.
need for money
Taiwan and Somaliland share similar economic interests in addition to formal recognition.
Taiwan, the top producer of semiconductors in the world, is in dire need of energy and wants to decrease its dependence on rare earths imported from China, while Somaliland seeks foreign investment to diversify its economy away from remittances and subsistence farming.
After 11 years of research, British-Turkish company Genel Energy officially declared the finding of oil in Somaliland in January, giving economic ties between Somaliland and Taiwan a considerable boost. According to Lou, Taiwan’s CPC, which has a 49 percent ownership in the block where the oil was found, plans to start digging a well in the fourth quarter of this year.
However, due to a lack of adequate infrastructure, Taiwanese may have to wait years for oil supplies from Somaliland to reach the Port of Berbera. Following a short period of relations between Chad and Taiwan, CPC found oil in the country of Chad in 2009. However, it wasn’t until December 2020 that Chadian oil made it to Taiwan.
Other than CPC, no Taiwanese companies have started doing business in Somaliland, despite the fact that the Representative Offices of the two nations have organized trade shows and steered agreements about mineral development.
Hagi continues to be upbeat.
Due to COVID, Taiwan was closed during the first 2.5 years of their partnership, which limited their ability to do business overseas. “However, we have solid ties with TAITRA (a nonprofit organization that promotes commerce in Taiwan) as well as trade associations like the Taiwan-Africa Business Association. There will be a lot of positive developments between our two nations over the next ten years.
Of fact, it is difficult to foresee how Somaliland and Taiwan’s relations would develop over the next ten years.
They do not seem to be as threatened by China, at least on the surface, as the relations between Taiwan and its few nominal allies.
We’re willing to establishing ties with any nation, including Taiwan, China, Russia, and the US. However, we want to do this unconditionally; we won’t accept a mandate to sever ties with Taiwan, added Hagi.
China seems quite understated in Somaliland, which is remarkable for an East African nation.
Except for two middle-aged men who were on an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft leaving from Somaliland’s de facto capital Hargeisa and were reticent to discuss their work, Al Jazeera observed no Chinese-operated enterprises during a week in Somaliland.
Business and political elites in Somaliland typically had favorable views of Taiwan, but it is unclear if the ordinary populace feels the same way or is even aware of the country’s ties with Taiwan.
Although the former chairman of the Waddani Party, which won Somaliland’s most recent parliamentary election and has a strong chance of winning the presidency whenever elections take place, did question the wisdom of relations with Taiwan in 2021, official skepticism towards Taiwan from Somaliland politicians still remains rare.
Former Somaliland House of Representatives Speaker Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi called for closer ties with China, claiming that recognition required the backing of “a government that is a member of the United Nations Security Council with veto power” and that Beijing was also working to “bring vast development to the region.”
According to analysts, the next election may spark similar disputes.
“[Since] the 2021 speech from Waddani’s chairman, there have been no notable public statements from political figures that question the Taiwan relationship,” claimed Mohamed Farah, an authority on great power competition in East Africa and the head of the Academy for Peace and Development, a think tank with its headquarters in Hargeisa. But there could be more viewpoints after elections are set and parties release their platforms.
However, for the time being, Somaliland and Taiwan may enjoy their still-close connections in the hopes that US attention and shared investment materialize before political conditions both domestically and outside change.
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