MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – A Turkish warship is set to dock at the seaport of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Tuesday as part of a recent defense cooperation agreement between Ankara and Mogadishu.
Turkey will provide maritime security to Somalia and will help build the Somali navy to be able to prevent threats to the country’s territorial waters as part of the defense and economic cooperation agreement signed in February.
Somali government officials are expected to meet Turkish navy members once the warship docks at Mogadishu seaport, signaling the first step towards the implementation of the agreement which angered the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia.
Mogadishu seaport has stopped operations ahead of the arrival of the Turkish warship and there are reports that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud will attend a ceremony aimed at welcoming the ship to Somali waters.
The defense cooperation agreement between Mogadishu and Ankara came just a few weeks after Somaliland had signed a memorandum of understanding with Ethiopia to lease a parcel of land along the Red Sea to Addis Ababa, triggering the ire of the Somali government. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said the deal signed by his government with Turkey has nothing to do with his government’s diplomatic tiff with Ethiopia and is only aimed at securing Somalia’s territorial waters.
In response to the deal, the United Arab Emirates which finances the training and equipment of thousands of Somali troops in charge of the security of Mogadishu and its surrounding environs stopped its security assistance to Somalia in an attempt to put pressure on President Mohamud’s government to revoke its agreement with Turkey.
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