Foreign ministry official Ali Yang says that plans to set up informal relations with Somaliland will go ahead once the COVID-19 pandemic eases and flights resume
Plans to open a Taiwanese representative office in Somaliland and a Somaliland representative office in Taipei are on hold due to COVID-19. That was the word from the foreign ministry’s chief of African affairs, Ali Yang, on Thursday.
Somaliland is a self-declared state in the Horn of Africa region. Its 1991 declaration of independence from Somalia is not internationally recognized. However, it maintains informal diplomatic contacts with a range of countries through a network of representative offices.
Yang says that in addition to the danger posed by COVID-19 itself, the delay is also due to the severing of air links between Somaliland and Dubai, the only route that allows for onward service to Taiwan. Yang says the opening of the two representative offices will proceed once the pandemic eases and flights into Somaliland resume.
