HARGEISA, Dec 22 — The Taiwan Representative Office in the Republic of Somaliland has issued a sharply worded statement rejecting what it described as false claims made by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud regarding Taiwan and cross-strait relations.
The response followed comments made by the Somalia president during a CGTN interview aired on Dec. 21, in which he said China possessed the military capability to “bring back” Taiwan.
“Maintaining freedom, security, peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region is a widely accepted international consensus,” the statement said, warning that China’s military provocations and so-called “grey-zone” tactics threaten regional and global stability.
The Taiwan office urged Somalia’s government to focus on its domestic development and internal priorities rather than aligning itself with what it called China’s “warring rhetoric” in geopolitical competition.
“Echoing such rhetoric achieves nothing but undermines international peace, stability and trust,” the statement added.
Taiwan said it would continue working with diplomatic allies and like-minded nations to uphold democratic values and preserve regional and global peace, despite what it described as diplomatic suppression and propaganda orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party.
Taiwan and Somaliland opened representative offices in each other’s capitals in 2020, formalising a partnership between two democratic governments. The move was met with opposition from Beijing, which continues to assert claims over Taiwan despite the island’s long-standing self-rule, independent institutions, and democratically elected government.
