The article “Somaliland has a Deal Ready for Trump, But China is Second in Line” argues that Somaliland is offering the United States access to its strategic port of Berbera in exchange for official recognition of its statehood. They are particularly hopeful that Donald Trump will make this deal.
Somaliland is offering the U.S. the use of the port of Berbera, which is strategically located on the Gulf of Aden, a crucial shipping route. The port could also serve as a military base.
In return, Somaliland wants the U.S. to officially recognize it as an independent country. Somaliland has been operating as a de facto state for 34 years, but lacks international recognition.
Somaliland hopes Trump, known for transactional deal-making, will see the benefit of the port and grant recognition.
Somaliland is growing impatient, as other countries, including China and Russia, are also showing interest in the region. China, while not officially engaging, is reportedly willing to do anything to prevent Somaliland’s relationship with Taiwan.
In essence, Somaliland is trying to leverage its strategic location and pro-Western stance to gain international recognition, but faces competition and political hurdles.
The complete piece from the largest newspaper in Switzerland, The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), is as follows:
Somaliland has a Deal Ready for Trump, But China is Second in Line
Somaliland is offering the United States use of a strategic Horn of Africa port in exchange for recognition of its statehood. In Hargeisa, everyone is pinning their hopes on U.S. President Donald Trump. But impatience is mounting.
By Christian Putsch (text and photos), Hargeisa
Summary
- Somaliland is offering the U.S. use of the strategic port of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden in exchange for its recognition as an independent state.
- S. President Donald Trump is seen as a potential ally, but impatience is growing in the self-declared breakaway republic due to interest from other nations, including China and Russia.
- Despite its government’s long track record of stability, Somaliland still lacks international recognition and thus faces economic challenges, as well.
Said Hassan is losing patience. The general manager of the port in Berbera, on the northern coastline of the Horn of Africa, today looks out at many empty terminals when he goes to work. Behind his opulent desk, he is waiting for large ships and big contracts – as well as for a small geopolitical miracle.
He and his allies hope that this will be accomplished by the United States, ideally by President Donald Trump himself, who is famously inclined toward deals and transactional bargaining. And Somaliland has something to offer Trump: a port in a prime location. In addition, the region can provide a military base with an adjacent airport boasting one of Africa’s longest runways.
“We have had several Republican senators from the U.S. here, and military delegations have visited at least 10 times and found the security arrangements to be good,” Hassan says. “If the U.S. wants to use Berbera, it can.”
The modern port of Berbera is Somaliland’s ante as it seeks to enter a larger game of geopolitical poker. The territory is located on the Gulf of Aden, the strip of sea between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. This is one of the world’s most important shipping routes. Around 20% of the globe’s total oil production is shipped through this passage. However, the Gulf of Aden has also been the scene of piracy and military conflicts. The Houthi militia in Yemen has persistently attacked container ships here.
Somaliland’s offer to the U.S. is clearly defined and entirely in line with Trump’s stated wishes. By using the port, the U.S. could have a military presence on this strategic coastline. But the territory’s policymakers want something in return – political recognition of Somaliland – as the breakaway region has yet to achieve its goal of becoming an internationally recognized state.
During colonial times, Somaliland was a British protectorate, while the rest of present-day Somalia was under Italian control. When both territories gained independence in 1960, they joined together. But this union was fragile right from the start. Thirty-four years ago, Somaliland, a region with a population of 5 million, declared its independence from Somalia, a country that has been persistently plagued by instability and violence.
Since that time, Somaliland has been operating as a de facto state, with its own currency, its own army, and a comparatively stable and democratically legitimate government. What it still lacks is recognition by the international community. In this regard, its best hope now lies with Trump, of all people – the man who referred to several African nations as “shithole countries” during his first term in office, and who has shown little interest in the continent on the whole.
But in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, hope is sprouting. In a surprising move in late June, Trump turned his attention to Africa and brokered an agreement between the governments of Congo and Rwanda meant to end one of the worst wars of the modern era. In all likelihood, however, the U.S. president’s newfound interest in the region has less to do with peace than with the rare earths to be found here.
Will Somaliland soon be receiving his attention, too? Representatives of the region have been actively engaged in lobbying the U.S. over the past 12 months. They have received delegations, established contacts with Republican senators, and worked with the authors of “Project 2025,” the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation’s road map for Trump’s second term. In fact, that document states that recognition of Somaliland as a sovereign state is being considered – as a safeguard against the United States’ deteriorating position in Djibouti.
The U.S. already operates a strategically important military base in that tiny neighboring country. However, the government in Djibouti only allows the U.S. to carry out very limited operations against the Houthis from its territory so as to avoid becoming a target of the Islamist militia itself. Moreover, in addition to that American military presence, the country also hosts a smaller Chinese base.
Somaliland is hoping to benefit from this complex situation. Port manager Said Hassan is playing a key role in this regard. The nearly 2-meter-tall Hassan belongs to the region’s governing party and is a close confidant of Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi. As we meet, the business card of a German diplomat from whom he recently requested more support can be seen on his desk.
Abdullahi offers eloquent words affirming Somaliland’s pro-Western stance, but makes his impatience clear. “If the West is unwilling, then China will knock on the door. And Russia will, too,” he warns. China is already lobbying behind the scenes, he says, and that country’s Communist Party has sent representatives via Chinese companies.
Nevertheless, Beijing has declined official contact with Somaliland, continuing to support the one-Somalia policy. China also expressed public outrage when Somaliland established diplomatic relations with Taiwan five years ago and allowed Taipei to open a liaison office in Hargeisa. “China would pay anything to get us to send Taiwan packing,” says Hassan. “The U.S. has been dragging its feet for a long time. We hope that this will finally change under Trump.”
He adds that he has discussed this with Somaliland’s president, who recently told The Guardian newspaper that progress was being made. State recognition was on the horizon, Abdullahi said, adding: “It’s a matter of time – of not if, but when and who will lead the recognition of Somaliland.”
National pride and a struggling economy
National pride takes precedence over virtually all else in Somaliland. There is hardly a car to be seen without the green, white and red flag on its rearview mirror, and hardly a street without facades painted in the national colors. The souvenir shop at the airport sells coffee mugs emblazoned with the inscription: “Recognize Somaliland – now.”
In part because it is not integrated into the international banking system, the region suffers from high inflation rates. Credit card payments are not possible. At markets, traders will exchange bundles of local currency for a few U.S. dollars.
Hassan is deeply familiar with the economic hardships of his homeland. Today, there are only a few cargo ships in the port, delivering onions from Yemen. In the evening, workers load goats for export to the Gulf States.
These facilities are not being used anywhere near to capacity. The huge neighboring country of Ethiopia currently uses Djibouti for access to the sea. Due to its current monopoly position, the small country is able to demand excessive fees, and therefore opposes Somaliland’s recognition by the African Union. For its part, the AU strictly adheres to the principle that national borders cannot be changed – in part to prevent setting a precedent for other regions, such as Tigray in Ethiopia or Biafra in Nigeria.
Last year, there was great excitement and even fear of a potential war when Ethiopia promised to conduct a “benevolent review” of Somaliland’s independence. The landlocked Ethiopia would like to expand its access to the sea. However, efforts to strike a trade agreement with Somaliland have stalled.
It almost seems as if Ethiopia and the U.S. are passing the buck to each other when it comes to being the first country to recognize Somaliland – knowing full well that any such step would also have an impact on the Gulf States, which are also competing for access to ports on the Red Sea.
“Everyone wants this 850-kilometer stretch of coastline”
In the office of perhaps the most important advocate for this small country, it is clear just how long Somaliland has been engaged in lobbying the United States. Behind Edna Adan’s desk hang photographs testifying to over half a century of diplomacy and activism. One shows Africa’s famous nurse with Lyndon B. Johnson, the U.S. president from the 1960s, while others show her posing with the Clintons or with various U.S. secretaries of state.
The 87-year-old activist and fighter for women’s rights was one the country’s first nurses, the first female foreign minister of Somaliland, and the founder of a university and a hospital in the capital city.
“We never really belonged to Somalia,” Adan says. “The union with Somalia was never formally ratified. And it has long since ended in every respect.” She, too, hopes that her dream of international recognition will finally come true. “Everyone wants this 850-kilometer stretch of coastline,” she says. This is certainly true of China, she notes, but also of the Houthis and the militant Islamic State group.
Yet instead of playing these competitors off each other, Somaliland has repeatedly signaled its loyalty to Trump. The government even reacted with public openness to a surprising report in March. At that time, the Associated Press news service wrote that talks were allegedly ongoing between American and Israeli officials and representatives of Somaliland regarding the possibility of resettling Palestinians from Gaza.
The Foreign Ministry in Hargeisa denied that such talks had taken place. However, the local refugee authority told The Guardian newspaper that it was open to the idea. Somaliland welcomes all refugees, it said.
It remains to be seen whether Somaliland’s lobbying and loyalty will pay off. In Washington, some figures are calling for the pursuit of U.S. interests in the region without sparking the turmoil that official recognition could lead to. For example, the U.S. is working with Somalia to combat militants from the al-Shabab and Islamic State groups, and open support for Somaliland could jeopardize this alliance. The advocates of caution may still prevail.
Official recognition also holds some potential to trigger local conflict, as some clans in certain eastern regions of Somaliland feel a stronger affiliation with Somalia than with the government in Hargeisa. In the end, the U.S. could elect to do no more than expand economic and military cooperation – as it has done with Taiwan, which also lacks official recognition as a state.
But Adan, the nurse and activist, refuses to give up. “If Trump and his advisers have time to think, they will make the right decision,” she says. In any case, there is still some room left behind her desk, perhaps for another framed photo with a U.S. president.
