Date: Friday, 09 August 2024
ANKARA — Ethiopia and Somalia will hold a second round of direct talks in Turkey next week, earlier than initially planned, after Ankara tabled a two-pronged framework settlement proposal, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Friday. He did not specify the date.
Turkey-brokered talks between the two countries aim to defuse heightened tensions in the Horn of Africa after a controversial deal between Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland earlier this year brought Somalia and Ethiopia to the brink of armed conflict.
“We are planning a second round of talks next week,” Fidan said, speaking at a joint press conference in Istanbul with Montenegro Foreign Minister Ervin Ibrahimovic, who was on an official visit to Turkey.
The foreign ministers of Ethiopia and Somalia held their first round of direct talks in Ankara in early July and agreed to gather in early September for a second round.
Fidan said the two key aspects of the proposal were ensuring landlocked Ethiopia’s access to the seas via Somalia and, in return, Addis Ababa's recognition of Somalia’s territorial integrity and political sovereignty.
The Jan. 1 deal signed between Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland and Ethiopia would grant Addis Ababa access to the Red Sea in return for recognition of Somaliland. Somalia, which does not recognize the de facto republic, rejected the agreement as a violation of its sovereignty and called it cause for war.
Fidan’s announcement came on the heels of his Aug. 3 visit to Ethiopia, where he met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Foreign Minister Taye Atske Selassie.
“During my visit to Ethiopia, I had the opportunity to discuss these issues in detail with Prime Minister Abiy,” Fidan said at the Friday press conference in Istanbul.
On July 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Somali counterpart, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, also discussed Turkish mediation efforts between Mogadishu and Addis Ababa during a phone call.
“It doesn't benefit any of us that these two countries have reached such a tense point due to misunderstandings and unresolved diplomatic issues,” Fidan said on Friday, noting that in addition to Addis Ababa and Mogadishu, Ankara was also in contact with other regional countries that are friendly to both Horn of African nations to establish steps to resolve the conflict. He didn’t mention them by name.
Selassie and his Somali counterpart, Ahmed Moallim Fiqi, had agreed to continue direct talks between their countries during the first round of talks hosted by Fidan in Ankara.
Turkey, which has publicly backed the territorial integrity of Somalia — home to Turkey's largest military base abroad — in the face of the conflict, also enjoys close military and commercial ties with Addis Ababa. Ethiopia purchased more than a dozen drones from Turkey in 2021.
