Somaliland touts oil and shared values as it offers Taiwan gateway into Africa

Self-declared African state pushes investment and trade opportunities during ministers’ visit to the island, with which it has exchanged representative offices

‘We are champions of democracy in Africa and Asia,’ Foreign Minister Esse Kayd says, condemning ‘coercive or threatening measures’ in reference to Beijing

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Somaliland Foreign Minister Esse Kayd is hosted by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei. Photo: CNA

Published: 8:12pm, 9 Feb 2022Updated: 8:54pm, 9 Feb 2022

The visiting foreign minister of Somaliland has invited Taiwan to invest in his country’s oil and businesses, as the self-declared East African country resists pressure from Beijing over exchanging de facto embassies with the island.

Taiwan has been left with just one formal ally in Africa – the tiny landlocked Eswatini in the continent’s south. That follows years of diplomatic tussles with Beijing, which views self-ruled Taiwan as its territory and says it has no right to establish official relations with any country.

Eager to expand its links to Africa, Taipei in 2020 managed to open a representative office in Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991 and is not recognised internationally as a country.

In a meeting with Tsai Ing-wen, the island’s president, in Taipei on Wednesday, Somaliland Foreign Minister Esse Kayd asked “giant companies” in Taiwan to invest and trade in Africa.

“It is a mutual benefit in which Taiwan increases its exports to Africa while Somaliland can increase job opportunities for its youth,” Kayd told Tsai at her office.

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