TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan will establish a representative office in the breakaway African region of Somaliland, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said on Wednesday, amid an escalating diplomatic tug-of-war between Taipei and Beijing.
Taiwan has signed an agreement with Somaliland to “establish good relations” and that the two countries “share a deep-seated love of freedom & democracy,” Wu wrote on Twitter.
Taiwan has formal diplomatic relations with only 15 countries due to pressure from China, which considers the island to be its territory with no right to state-to-state ties.
Somaliland is a self-declared state internationally recognised only as an autonomous region of Somalia. It is strategically located on the Horn of Africa on the shores of the Gulf of Aden, facing war-torn Yemen.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
