Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, has sent a special message to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish President. A senior Ethiopian delegation is in Ankara to deliver this message. What is this message about?
The Ethiopian delegation has two senior officials. Mulatu Teshome Wirtu, former President of Ethiopia, is part of the delegation. He served as Ethiopia’s Ambassador to China, Japan, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. While serving as Ambassador to Turkey, he was elected as President of Ethiopia by a unanimous parliamentary vote on 7 October 2013. He served as the president of Ethiopia from 2013 to 2018. Yesterday Mulatu met with Erdogan, the Turkish President.
The delegation has Ethiopian Foreign Minister too. Taye Atske Selaissie yesterday met with his Turkish counterpart.
The Ethiopian delegation is visiting Turkey in the backdrop of Ethiopia Somalia tensions over a controversial MoU signed by Ethiopia and Somaliland in January this year. The MoU would grant access to landlocked Ethiopia to sea through Somaliland with Ethiopia establishing a naval base in Somaliland’s coastal areas. In return, Somaliland would be recognized as a country by Ethiopia and it will have shares in a profitable Ethiopian entity.
Somalia opposed this MoU vowing to stop the implementation. Somaliland lacks international recognition. Internationally it is recognized as part of Somalia.
In February this year, Somalia signed a defense pact with Turkey. Turkey would train Somalia’s forces and defend Somalia’s territorial waters in return for getting a share in Somalia’s under water resources.
Turkey Somalia defense pact was seen as an attempt to stop the implementation of Ethiopia Somaliland MoU.
This week, Dr. Essa Kaid, Somaliland Foreign Minister, said that progress had been made to implement the MoU with Ethiopia and in the next 2 months, the MoU will translate into a bilateral agreement.
It seems that the Prime Minister of Ethiopia has sent this delegation to Ankara to take Turkey onboard before the implementation of MoU with Somaliland. In case of Somalia-Ethiopia military escalation, Turkey could be drawn into the conflict keeping in view the Turkish military presence in Somalia and its defense pact with Somalia.
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