Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is expected to run a direct talk with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Ankara’s third round talk, which will be held this week.
President Mohamud on Tuesday headed to Ankara, on “an official invitation” from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the state-affiliated SNTV reported.
Media reports indicated that the two neighborly countries’ leaders’ direct talk will be the first since Addis Ababa signed an agreement with the self-declared Somaliland.
Ethiopia’s PM Abiy Ahmed signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the former president of Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi on January 1, 2024, in Addis Ababa to access from and to the sea of Somaliland and to lease a 20km parts of its coastline for 50 years to build a naval base.
Somalia views the MoU as an act of “aggression” and denounces the deal as a “violation of Somalia’s sovereignty”.
Why Turkey?
Turkey, the main supplier of Drones to the Ethiopian government, has mediated two rounds of failed talks at the foreign ministerial level in July and August 2024.
From August 12-13, 2024, Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan mediated a talk between the former Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Taye Atske Selassie and his counterpart Ahmed Moallim Fiqi.
Ankara hosts a failed mediation between Ethiopia and Somalia
The proposal aims to grant Ethiopia access to the seas from Mogadishu and, in return, requires Addis Ababa to recognize Somalia’s territorial integrity and political sovereignty was rejected by Somalia.
In August 2024, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke to Ethiopia’s PM Abiy Ahmed and Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to resolve the dispute.
Somalia signed the Defense and Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with Turkey in February 2024.
A former Turkish province, Egypt meets Ankara in Mogadishu, a few miles from the Ethiopian border
Somalia also signed an oil and gas cooperation deal with Turkey in March 2024 that allows the Turkish Armed Forces to be a partner in Somalia’s maritime zone for the coming ten years and enables Turkey to receive 30 percent of revenue from Somalia’s exclusive economic zone.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will reportedly mediate the third round of talk and is working to ease the escalating diplomatic tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia.
