Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met separately with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Taye Atske Selassie and Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Muallim Fiqi in New York.
According to a post on the Ministry’s X account, Fidan discussed various issues with his Ethiopian and Somali counterparts at the Turkish House in New York. The post noted that the Ministry is actively seeking a balanced, feasible, and mutually beneficial solution to the tensions between the two countries, based on the Ankara Process.
Ethiopia-Somalia Dispute
Ethiopia is the largest landlocked country in the world by population. Following Eritrea’s de facto separation from Ethiopia in 1991 and its legal independence in 1993, Ethiopia lost its access to the sea. Consequently, it has kept the issue of access to the Red Sea on the agenda for economic reasons and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Somaliland on January 1.
This memorandum, which included a pledge to recognize Somaliland, drew significant backlash from Somalia and the international community. Somaliland President Musa Bihi Abdi stated that with the completion of the agreement, Ethiopia would recognize them as “independent.”
In response to Ethiopia’s agreement with Somaliland, the Somali government withdrew its ambassador from Ethiopia. The Arab League and the African Union condemned the agreement, stating it opens the door to military base construction and port development in the Red Sea.
Ethiopian and Somali foreign ministers had previously met in Nairobi on March 9-10 to seek solutions to the crisis between their countries, but no results were achieved from the indirect negotiations. The parties had convened twice in Ankara under Turkish mediation as part of the negotiations known as the “Ankara Process.”