Somaliland Moves Its Taiwan Office Into Taipei's Diplomatic Quarter

Somaliland moved its de facto embassy in Taiwan to new premises on Friday, June 12, relocating the mission to Taipei's Tianmu district, home to many of the city's foreign missions, and using the ribbon-cutting to tell Beijing and Mogadishu that their pressure has changed nothing.

The move from the capital's Neihu district is short in kilometers and heavy in meaning. Taiwan has been squeezed out of nearly every capital in Africa by China, and the upgrade plants one of its last partnerships on the continent in plain view. Somaliland, recognized by almost no other government, gets a more prestigious address for its 35-year argument that it should be treated as the state it already functions as.

"We have the right to choose who we have relationships with. It's our prerogative, and so it hasn't been successful as far as pressure tactics."

Mahmoud Adam Jama Galaal, Somaliland's representative to Taiwan, speaking to reporters at the opening

Galaal, who called Taiwan a very important ally, said Somaliland's main political parties are united in refusing to give in, and that his government has had no communication with China. Beijing's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

There is a practical case for the new address too. Galaal thanked Taiwan's foreign ministry for its help with the relocation and said the office's proximity to other missions makes the everyday work of diplomacy easier: engagement, cooperation and routine contact with the neighbors. He went further, saying the two missions perform and function with the vigor of two states with the strongest diplomatic ties, reflecting the high degree of trust, confidence, and cooperation that exists between our governments.

Somaliland sits on the Horn of Africa, facing the Gulf of Aden and some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. It declared independence from Somalia in 1991, as that country collapsed into civil war, and has governed itself in relative peace ever since, holding elections and running its own institutions without winning broad recognition.

The Taiwan relationship dates to 2020, when the two sides agreed to open representative offices in each other's capitals. Cooperation has since spread across education, healthcare, agriculture, technology, energy and maritime affairs, Galaal said at Friday's ceremony, describing a relationship distinguished by its depth, substance, and mutual commitment.

The friendship carries costs, and both partners have been made to pay them. Somalia, which still claims Somaliland as its territory, banned entry to Taiwanese passport holders in April last year. China has pressed Hargeisa to cut the relationship since it began.

Then came December. Israel recognized Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state, the first such recognition Hargeisa has ever received. Somalia called the move a deliberate attack on its sovereignty; China rejected it; Taiwan welcomed it. Friday's office upgrade is the first visible deepening of the Taipei relationship since that breakthrough.

Taiwan's own diplomatic map explains the warmth. Beijing has peeled away Taipei's partners one by one, and in Africa only the Kingdom of Eswatini still maintains full diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu, who cut the ribbon alongside Galaal, told guests that Taiwan and Somaliland are both beacons of democracy, freedom and rule of law and called Somaliland Taiwan's first major partner in East Africa.

Wu said the office's new location symbolizes the staunch and cordial ties between our nations and pointed to where the partnership goes next: maritime security, humanitarian assistance and infrastructure.

None of that requires formal recognition. But each new project makes the two governments look a little more like what their critics insist they are not — two states doing ordinary state business with each other, in full view of the diplomatic quarter's other tenants.