Ethiopia and Somalia the two Nations began feuring in January Ethiopia approached a breakaway region of Somalia for Port access the region of somal land it reportedly promised to recognize Somali land's Independence in exchange for maritime trade access this caused an uproar in Somalia which saw this as an attack on its sovereignity so ties between Somalia and Ethiopia hit a record low after this but yesterday there was a Deton the two countries have struck a deal to ease tensions they were agreed to find a peaceful resolution to this issue and one nation helped bring this deal
about turkey re T erdogan was celebrating yesterday the Turkish president just pulled off a diplomatic coup he brought together two bickering sides and mediated an agreement to ease tensions so as a result of the trust that Somalia and Ethiopia have in our country we have reached a new stage in the inara process that we started approximately 8 months ago by overcoming resentments and misunderstandings we have taken the first step towards a new beginning based on peace and cooperation between Somalia and Ethiopia so what were these problems that erdogan was talking about Ethiopia is a landlocked
Nation with over 130 million people it's the largest landlocked nation in the world but as you can see from the map the coast isn't very far away most neighboring countries have Maritime access to the Arabian Sea or the Red Sea Ethiopia's prime minister Abby Ahmed has wanted Maritime access for years unfettered access so on the 1st of January this year he struck a port access deal with Somali land now Somali land isn't a recognized country the world considers it a breakaway region of Somalia but Ahmed struck a deal to lease the berbara port in Somali
land in Exchange somal Land said he offered them recognition this sparked a major row Somalia was livid they saw it as an attack on their sovereignity Somalia turned to an old friend for help Turkish president re T erdogan in July turkey signed a deal with Somalia it started deploying ships to Somalian Waters and troops on the ground it was a clear pressure tactic to get Ethiopia to back away from the Somali landport deal talks were launched simultaneously they were called the anara process and for a while they looked to be headed nowhere the first two
rounds didn't solve the problem a third round initially scheduled for September was delayed negotiations seemed to be at an impass and Ethiopia was steadily making its sport dreams a reality in fact there was a major breakthrough on Tuesday Somali land launched an Ethiopian Clearing House at berbera Port Ethiopia was on the verge of starting trade operations but then yesterday tury convened the meeting in anara erdogan first met the leaders of Somalia and Ethiopia separately and then they held a joint press conference in one aspect it's a conclusion because it stops and the differences that we
had in the recent times Ethiopia and Somalia are two neighborly countries and they have mutual uh interests in cooperating together and building a prosperous future of both our two countries and our two people I believe that today's constructive discussions will push us into a new year with this Spirit of cooperation friendship and the willingness to work together instead of against each other Somalia and Ethiopia have agreed to work together Ethiopia will get sea access through Somalia they've agreed to begin technical negotiations by the end of February and conclude the talks 4 months after that all
this will be overseen by turkey this is a major win for erdogan it's a relief for Somalia and it gives Ethiopia what it wanted sea access the only loser seems to be somal land the region has lost a golden opportunity for international recognition and it may just be stuck with a new Clearing House that will only gather dust
