Djibouti President, Ismail Omar Guelleh, has confirmed that Somalia President, Mohamed Farmaajo, and Somaliland President, Moussa Bihi Abdi are set to meet in Djibouti on Sunday 14 June.
Guelleh announced the meeting on his Tweeter account on Saturday.
“Tomorrow in Djibouti, I will chair a meeting between President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and President Moussa Bihi Abdi to follow up on the mediation efforts between the two leaders.
“I have also invited Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to attend the discussions,” he said.
The meeting which would come up on the invitation of the Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh, would be held under the aegis of Donald Yamamoto, the US ambassador to Somalia.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and representatives of African and European would attend the meeting.
The meeting which would be a historical one if finally held would primarily focus on mediating building confidence between the two countries.
In the recent past, attempts have been made to have the two countries meet and iron out their differences, but such plans did not yield a positive result.
Earlier this year, the two leaders met in Addis Ababa on the invitation of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed.
The meeting did hold but there was not any positive outcome to boast of primarily due to the disagreement between the two countries on which they have yet to find a common ground.
One of the disagreements is construction of Berbera Naval Base which has been outright opposed by the Somalia president, Mohamed Farmaajo.
Similarly, Berbera port expansion project by UAE’s DP World with at least $440 million deal also opposed by Farmaajo is another contention between the two nations.
The Somaliland’s president, Moussa Bihi, maintained that the two contracts were signed by his country as an independent state, and that talks between the two countries could practically be possible only if Mogadishu recognized Somaliland as an independent state.
Expectedly, the Sunday’s meeting, meant to mediate between the two countries would prove fruitful and provide a common ground for the nations to come to an understanding and come up with a way forward.
