{"id":273389,"date":"2024-08-10T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-10T03:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=273389"},"modified":"2024-08-10T11:06:01","modified_gmt":"2024-08-10T03:06:01","slug":"somalia-ethiopia-to-resume-talks-on-port-deal-turkiye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=273389","title":{"rendered":"Somalia, Ethiopia to resume talks on port deal: Turkiye"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/458\/45872221.jpg\" alt=\"Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Somali President\"\/><figcaption><strong><em>Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Somali President<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>ISTANBUL (Turkiye), Aug 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The Somali and Ethiopian foreign ministers will meet in Ankara next week to discuss disagreements over a port deal Ethiopia signed with the breakaway region of Somaliland this year, Turkiye\u2019s foreign minister says.<br><br>\u201cTensions between Somalia and Ethiopia would come to an end with Ethiopia\u2019s access to the seas through Somalia as long as Ethiopia\u2019s recognition of Somalia\u2019s territorial integrity and political sovereignty is secured,\u201d Hakan Fidan said at a news conference in Istanbul on Friday.<br><br>Turkiye is mediating talks between the East African neighbours, whose ties were strained in January when Ethiopia agreed to lease 20km of coastline from Somaliland in exchange for recognition of its independence. Somalia says Somaliland is part of its territory.<br><br>The agreement grants Ethiopia a 50-year lease on a naval base with access to Somaliland\u2019s Berbera port. It was signed on January 1 in Addis Ababa by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland leader Muse Bihi Abdi<br><br>In April, Somalia announced the expulsion of Ethiopia\u2019s ambassador from the country. It also shut down Ethiopia\u2019s consulates in Hargeisa, the largest city and capital of Somaliland, and Garowe, the capital city of the semiautonomous region of Puntland.<br><br>Ethiopia is one of Africa\u2019s most populous countries with 120 million people, but its economy has been restricted by a lack of access to the sea. It was cut off from the Gulf of Aden after a three-decades-long war that saw Eritrea secede in 1993, taking all of the country\u2019s former coastline with it.<br><br>In return for the deal, Ethiopia said it would provide an \u201cin-depth assessment\u201d of Somaliland\u2019s quest for official recognition as an independent nation, marking the first time any other country has offered to do this.<br><br>Fidan\u2019s announcement came a week after he visited Addis Ababa and met Abiy.<br><br>Somaliland is a self-governing breakaway state. Somalia regards any international recognition of it as an attack on its sovereignty.<br><br>The Somali government has called the port deal \u201coutrageous\u201d and \u201cunauthorised\u201d.<br><br>Turkiye has become a close ally of Somalia, building schools, hospitals and infrastructure and providing scholarships for Somalis to study in Turkiye.<br><br>In 2017, Turkiye opened its biggest overseas military base in Mogadishu. This year, Turkiye and Somalia signed a defence and economic cooperation agreement. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISTANBUL (Turkiye), Aug 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; The Somali and Ethiopian foreign ministers will meet in Ankara next week to discuss disagreements over a port deal Ethiopia signed with the breakaway region of Somaliland this year, Turkiye\u2019s foreign minister says. \u201cTensions between Somalia and Ethiopia would come to an end with Ethiopia\u2019s access to the seas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":273390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273389"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273391,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273389\/revisions\/273391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/273390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}