The Somaliland Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said it has taken “a significant step towards international recognition today.”
The Ministry’s announcement further said Somaliland has “established a Ministerial Level State Recognition Taskforce to strategize and pursue recognition efforts, and that the decision “aligns with our government’s ongoing diplomatic initiatives, including the recent MoU with Ethiopia for sea access.”
On 01 January 2024, Ethiopia and Somaliland signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) granting Ethiopia access to the sea in return for international recognition for Somaliland.
In a resolution issued at the end of four days of meetings by members of both the Executive and the Central Committee, the ruling Prosperity Party (PP) said in January that it has decided to bring the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that Ethiopia signed with Somaliland “to a practical agreement” while simultaneously giving attention to the principles of give and take to secure additional options to port access with other neighboring countries.
The ruling party further said the MoU with Somaliland was a testament to “Ethiopia’s position for regional economic and cultural ties.”
In February Somaliland said it was “on course without any wavering, and remain seized” of the implementation of the MoU and disclosed that a technical team of international legal experts and a high-level advisory group to advise and guide the process has been appointed.
Ethiopian officials’ official push back against critics of the MoU were in response to statements of condemnation from Egypt and the Arab League countries, while it continued maintaining its position to see through the MoU.
However, there has since been no update from the Ethiopian side on the status of the MoU, which has generated backlash from the government of neighboring Somalia and subsequent diplomatic rows.
