ANKARA, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Somalia and Ethiopia said they would work together to resolve a dispute over Addis Ababa’s plan to build a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland, which had drawn in regional powers and threatened to further destabilise the Horn of Africa.
The two countries’ leaders said they had agreed to find commercial arrangements to allow landlocked Ethiopia “reliable, secure and sustainable access to and from the sea” after talks on Wednesday mediated by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The meeting was their first since January when Ethiopia said it would lease a port in Somalia’s breakaway northern region of Somaliland in exchange for recognising the area’s independence.
Mogadishu rejected the deal and threatened to expel Ethiopian troops who were stationed in Somalia to fight Islamist insurgents.
Somalia opposes international recognition of Somaliland, which has governed itself and enjoyed comparative peace and stability since declaring independence in 1991.
In a joint statement released late on Wednesday, Somalia and Ethiopia said they had agreed to start technical negotiations by the end of February next year, and to conclude them within four months.
They did not go into detail.
“This joint declaration focuses on the future, not the past,” Erdogan said at a press conference in Ankara afterwards.
Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said he was ready to work with Ethiopia, while Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed welcomed Turkish efforts to resolve the dispute.
The spat has drawn Somalia closer to Egypt, which has quarrelled with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of a vast hydro dam on the Nile River, and to Eritrea, another of Ethiopia’s longtime foes.
Turkey has close ties with both Ethiopia and Somalia, training Somalia’s security forces and supplying development assistance in return for a foothold on a key global shipping route.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland, Ezgi Erkoyun, Huseyin Hayatsever, Abdi Sheikh, Dawit Endeshaw and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Keith Weir and Kate Mayberry)
