Turkish, Somali foreign ministers meet in Ankara for talks

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) – Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan hosted Somalia's acting Foreign Minister Ali Mohamed Omar for talks in the capital Ankara on Thursday.

No further information was shared about the closed-door meeting between Fidan and Omar.

Türkiye and Somalia, a Horn of Africa nation, have longstanding ties of friendship, security, and development aid.

Since 2013, Türkiye has assumed a facilitating role in the talks between the federal government of Somalia and the Somaliland administration.

Somaliland, which has not received official recognition since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991, acts as an independent entity administratively, politically and security-wise, while the central government has been unable to establish control over the territory.

The issue has not seen a significant progress due to lingering contentious issues, preventing the completion of talks between the two sides in Djibouti in 2020, resulting in a failure to reach an agreement.