{"id":59109,"date":"2020-08-29T17:24:16","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T17:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/?p=59109"},"modified":"2020-08-29T17:24:58","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T17:24:58","slug":"how-taiwan-found-a-new-african-friend-in-somaliland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/29\/how-taiwan-found-a-new-african-friend-in-somaliland\/","title":{"rendered":"How Taiwan Found A New African Friend In Somaliland"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Taiwan Found A New African Friend In Somaliland?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The relationship between the two largely unrecognized states has given Taipei a foothold in the region despite Beijing\u2019s attempts to freeze it out<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The two self-ruled democracies are largely unrecognized on the world stage but can support each other\u2019s\u2019 international ambitions<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Sarah Zheng and Kinling Lo<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Somaliland, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The allusion to the closing scene of the Hollywood classic Casablanca, came in a tweet earlier this month from Taiwanese government spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka discussing the burgeoning relationship between the two largely unrecognized states.<\/p>\n

In July the two governments announced that they had signed a treaty earlier in the year to establish representative offices in each other\u2019s\u2019 capitals.<\/p>\n

The move marked a breakthrough for two self-governing democracies that are largely unrecognized by the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Taiwan now has just 15 official diplomatic allies<\/a>\u00a0as Beijing moves to choke off its diplomatic space, while Somaliland, which declared independence in 1991 in the middle of Somalia\u2019s civil war, is not recognized by any country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Beijing has been steadily increasing its influence in the Horn of\u00a0Africa\u00a0and has made repeated attempts to prevent Taiwan moving closer to Somaliland.<\/p>\n

Diplomatic observers expect China to continue to court Somaliland \u2013 which is located next to\u00a0Djibouti, where China has a military base<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Alexander Huang Chieh-cheng, a professor of international relations and strategic studies at Taipei\u2019s Tamkang University, said, a representative office there would boost Taiwan\u2019s limited presence in Africa and could potentially house a military attache.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past few years, many countries have grown more suspicious of ties with China and Chinese investments, which does give Taiwan more space to maneuver,\u201d Huang, also former deputy minister on Taiwan\u2019s Mainland Affairs Council, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, that space is also limited because ultimately it depends on how much that country relies on China.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cEven if the US backs Taiwan more, the determining factor for how many allies Taiwan can keep depends on how much money and effort Beijing wants to spend to lure countries away from Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diplomatic battle between Beijing and Taipei has intensified in recent years, as official exchanges have frozen over Beijing\u2019s unwillingness to engage with\u00a0Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen<\/a>\u2018s independence-leaning administration.<\/p>\n

Taiwan has accused Beijing of using \u201cdollar diplomacy\u201d to woo Taiwan\u2019s remaining allies \u2013 including through big-ticket infrastructure funding \u2013 that has left the island with eSwatini as its only official ally in Africa.<\/p>\n

Beijing has criticized the new friendship with Somaliland, asserting that Taiwan was part of China and noting Somalia\u2019s complaints that Taiwan was undermining its sovereignty.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

The US National Security Council (NSC) also responded by tweeting that it was \u201cgreat to see Taiwan stepping up its engagement in East Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since the announcement of informal ties, Taipei and Beijing have both made overtures to Somaliland.<\/p>\n

Taiwan\u2019s foreign minister Joseph Wu tweeted last weekend that Somaliland\u2019s first representative to Taiwan, Mohamed Ogar Hagi Mohamoud, had \u201cbraved China\u2019s pressure to arrive in Taiwan\u201d and thanked the NSC for its support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact \u2018sovereignty (and) friendship aren\u2019t for sale\u2019 deserves international recognition,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One day before Hagi\u2019s arrival on August 8, Somaliland\u2019s President Muse Bihi Abdi met with a high-level Chinese delegation \u2013 led by Zhou Yuxiao, ambassador to the Forum on China-African Cooperation Affairs \u2013 to discuss economic cooperation and trade.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Taiwan Found A New African Friend In Somaliland? The relationship between the two largely unrecognized states has given Taipei a foothold in the region despite Beijing\u2019s attempts to freeze it out The two self-ruled democracies are largely unrecognized on the world stage but can support each other\u2019s\u2019 international ambitions By Sarah Zheng and Kinling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-english-news","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arabsiyonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Snapshot_2325.png?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5kp1p-fnn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59111,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59109\/revisions\/59111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}