Somaliland Reaffirms its commitment to resume Stalled Talks with Somalia

By: Somaliland Standard

Somaliland government reaffirmed its commitment to revive and resume stalled talks with Somalia. In a press statement, Musa Bihi Abdi, the Head of State of Somaliland said during a high level meetings with representatives from Norway and Turkey, Heidi Johansen and Aykut Kumbaroğlu

President Musa Bihi Abdi said that Somaliland populace and its government showed unity and resilience whilst the country had gone through stages to reach this milestone.

The Head of State went on to say that tremendous progress the country had made caught world attention.

The President of Somaliland has once again reiterated Somaliland’s stance on the resumption of the stalled talks with Somalia unless the talks must bear fruit.

Somaliland’s stance on the resumption of the talks with Somalia:-

1: Somaliland is adamant that the resumption of the talks must end with two independent states. Somaliland and Somalia voluntarily united in 1960 whilst the two countries were independent. Somaliland reclaimed its independence from Somalia in 1991. Since then Somaliland lived in peace and prosperity and achieved to reconstruct its state institutions. Somaliland held number of free and fair elections. There were five Presidents while three were democratically elected ones who assumed office in a transfer of power.

2: All previous agreements must be honored, respected and implemented swiftly. This is the only means we can build confidence.

3: Somaliland called on having International mediation mechanism that would guarantee the implementation of the agreements of the talks.

4: There should be a secretary that would be tasked to keep the data. The secretary will be neutral and must be professional.

5: There must be principles and code of conduct that would be the guidelines for the future talks.

6: There should be an agenda that would clearly state the bone of contention between the sides so that they would hold discussions.

7: There must be a time to wrap up the talks.

The Head of State was accompanied by Abdirahman Sayli’i, the Vice president, and the Foreign Minister, DR. Isse Kayd.