The President of the unique democracy in the Horn of Africa the Republic of Somaliland, today, delivered a historic, most forceful speech at the United States’ Heritage Foundation, Washington.
The second of high-caliber visits Somaliland leaders made to the United States within five months of one another, His Excellency the President, Musa Bihi Abdi, arrived in the US capital Sunday at the head of a delegation that included ministers, advisors, leading business people, civil society reps and media corps.
President Bihi highlighted a number of issues that promoted the right of statehood of Somaliland to the international community.
The Heritage Foundation, one of the foremost, most veritable proponents of democracy in a free world, proudly announced the address of the President before he made it in the strongest, most supportive terms coming from a US institution:
The President of the Heritage Foundation, introducing the president, summed the hope in the heart of all Somalilanders and all thwarted freedom lovers in the world.
“America should proudly be the first state to recognize Somaliland as an independent nation.” Dr. Kevin Roberts, the President of Heritage, stated.
Quotable excerpts of the President’s speech and in a discussion with Joshua Meservey, a senior policy analyst who demonstrated deep empathy for the Somaliland case time and again, since yesterday include:
- “No way Somaliland will accept to have a union with Somalia.”
- “During these (past) 10 years, Somalia has demonstrated a complete lack of interest in meaningful dialogue”
- “Somaliland believes there is no future in the dialogue with Somalia and we are prepared to pursue all available avenues to gain international recognition”.
- “As an equal with other nations, Somaliland will be able to contribute even more effectively to a sustainable & prosperous future for the Horn of Africa.”
- “We started without water in our cities. Our people came back from refugees camps. Their homes had been destroyed by air-raids and bombardments. We started from there”
- “We are confident that, in time, the world will come to acknowledge what an African Union fact-finding mission to Somaliland concluded in 2005 – that Somaliland’s search for recognition is ‘historically unique and self-justified’ ”.
- An important component of the partnership with the United States is to (the) establishment a permanent diplomatic presence in Somaliland. Ethiopia, UK, Denmark, Kenya, Taiwan, Turkey, UAE have diplomatic offices in our capital, the USA should have as well”.
- “Our ultimate goal remains to gain recognition as an independent nation and assume our rightful place within the international community”.
- “Somaliland believes that the international community has a moral obligation to support Somaliland’s pursue of international recognition”
- ” Somaliland is an independent country, We are not economically strong, we are not militarily strong, we are poor but we are very proud, no one can influence us”
- “The road ahead may be long, but I am more confident than ever that Somaliland will be able to count on U.S. support as we pursue shared objectives and journey toward our long-deferred destination: a free, sovereign, and democratic Somaliland”.
- “What I most proud of are Somaliland People who are resilient and for their unwavering patriotism towards their nation”.
- “Somaliland is poised to become a key player in global security and economy”
- “We have much to offer in terms of community-based security and closer collaboration with the United States would advance these shared interests.”
Somaliland, it appears, is reaping the fruits of more than three decades of resilience and perseverance in the face of an unabashed obdurance, disinformation, and outright enmity weaker Somalia has trained on it despite it being the one propped up by the international community with great difficulty. During this period, Somaliland held eight one-person-one-vote elections, built a strong, fully functioning government with its own currency flag, anthem, passport and forms of state governance. Somaliland established a record of stability, peaceful transition of powers, and dependable, neighborly relations with other countries in a region few of the above fully worked as the president of the Heritage Foundation briefly outlined.
A number of United States Senate and Congress members visited Somaliland in December of 2021 following the conclusion of a visit a delegation led by the Somaliland Foreign Minister, Dr. Essa Kayd, made to the States a month earlier.
According to sources privy to the delegation’s itinerary during the visit, the President will stay in the US for nine days or so during which he will have the opportunity to meet with State Department officials, Department of Defence and the Pentagon, National Security of the White House, Senate Foreign Affairs, House (Congress) Foreign Affairs, USAID, Think-tanks, and universities.
