amboli
DIR POWER
The unrecognized Republic of Somaliland recently did what few African states do: it defied China. On July 1, Somaliland and Taiwan, another nation not recognized by the United Nations, agreed to exchange ambassadors and open embassies in their respective capitals. The Chinese government is not accustomed to such rebuffs and has condemned the move by saying that Taiwan is undermining the territorial integrity of Somalia.
Somaliland, like Taiwan, fulfills the requirements for statehood as laid out in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States. In the case of Somaliland, it was a British protectorate that was, albeit briefly, an independent country before it chose to enter into a union with Somalia, a former Italian colony
“We turn down offers from the Chinese every other month,” a senior official with Somaliland’s port authority told me on a recent visit to the country. “We have no problem doing business with the Chinese, but we aren’t going to give up any of our sovereignty,” the official said. Instead of giving into offers from China, Somaliland has defied the country by pursuing a relationship with Taiwan. Sovereignty and independence, even if most of the world does not recognize them, are paramount for most Somalilanders.
President Bihi, an avid reader of history, referenced the U.S.’s own founding and George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s calls for their new nation to avoid foreign entanglements while engaging in trade and commerce with all. “Somaliland has a long way to go with respect to development,” Bihi said, “but we must not allow the country to be drawn into the conflicts that plague this part of the world.”
