Defence Minister thanks China for its support as security cooperation deepens

MOGADISHU (SONNA): Defence Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi has received the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Somalia, Wang Yu, for talks in Mogadishu on the government’s campaign against terrorism, cooperation between the two countries in defence, and the development of the capabilities of Somalia’s security institutions.

The Minister thanked the Chinese government for its continued support and for its position backing the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

That position has been stated repeatedly and at the highest level. In a joint statement issued by the two foreign ministries in January, China reiterated its firm support for Somalia’s territorial integrity, while Somalia reaffirmed its adherence to the one China principle and to the authority of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758. The two sides described their partnership as strategic and set out a shared commitment to sovereignty, unity and non interference in the internal affairs of states.

The reciprocity in that arrangement is the foundation of the relationship. Somalia and China have each taken the same position on the other’s territorial integrity, and each has held it consistently. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1960, in the months following Somali independence, which places China among the earliest states to open a mission in Mogadishu and among the few that have maintained the relationship across every subsequent period.

The economic side of it has moved substantially in the past two years. Since December 2024, China has applied zero tariff treatment to all tariff lines for imports from the least developed countries of Africa, Somalia among them, meaning Somali goods enter the Chinese market without customs duty. On 1 May this year that treatment was extended to all fifty three African countries holding diplomatic relations with China, making it the first major economy to grant unilateral and comprehensive duty free access to the continent.

For Somalia the opening applies to the goods the country actually sells. Livestock, marine products and agricultural commodities all fall within the arrangement, and the removal of duty lowers the landed cost of Somali goods in a market of more than a billion consumers. It arrives as the government is working to develop the blue economy and to move exports beyond raw commodities, and it gives that effort a destination that does not tax what Somalia sends.

Alongside trade, China has been a consistent source of humanitarian assistance. Emergency relief has been delivered during droughts and floods, including a consignment handed over for the Awdal region in December, and the Chinese embassy has worked with the Somali Disaster Management Agency on strengthening the country’s response to climate emergencies. Donations have also been made to institutions caring for orphans in Mogadishu.

Development and education cooperation has run in parallel. The Somali Diaspora Centre was completed with Chinese assistance, giving the government a facility through which to engage Somalis abroad. The China Somalia Friendship Scholarship has been awarded to students at Somali National University, and successive intakes of young Somalis have taken up scholarships to study in China across a range of disciplines.

Today’s meeting adds the security dimension to that record. The capability of Somalia’s security institutions is the measure by which the transition from international to national responsibility for security will be judged, and it is the area where the government has sought partners able to help build institutions rather than substitute for them.

What the two governments have built over six decades is a relationship without conditions attached to it, in which each side has supported the other on the question it regards as fundamental. For Somalia, at a moment when its territorial integrity is being tested, a partner that has stated its position without qualification and has backed it with trade access, relief and training is a partner of consequence. The meeting at the Ministry of Defence was one more step in a relationship that has held steady for a long time.