Somaliland opens a new representative office in Taiwan on Friday, with its top diplomat in Taipei saying the territory has the right to choose its relationships and will not sever ties despite objections from Beijing and Mogadishu. Mahmoud Adam Jama Galaal, Somaliland’s representative to Taiwan, says pressure tactics have not changed Somaliland’s friendship with Taipei. Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister François Wu says both Taiwan and Somaliland promote democracy and rule of law. The office opening follows Somaliland’s long-running status as a de facto state since it declared independence from Somalia in 1991, with its own institutions and security structures. Somaliland receives no recognition from any UN member state, though Israel recognized it in December 2023, according to one account.
Somalia condemns Taiwan’s efforts to establish “unauthorized” diplomatic relations with Somaliland, saying Somaliland remains part of Somalia and that external attempts to bypass the federal government in Mogadishu are unacceptable. One report also says the United States supports Somali sovereignty in recent communications while maintaining a working relationship with Somaliland “within” Somalia’s federal framework. Somaliland and Taiwan previously exchanged representative offices in each other’s capitals in 2020.
