Somali President Meets Regional Leaders for Talks in Ankara

Somali leaders have held talks in Ankara, continuing a relationship that has become one of the country's most significant external partnerships over the past decade.

Turkey's engagement in Somalia dates to 2011, when Ankara made a high-profile intervention during the famine of that year at a point when few governments maintained a presence in Mogadishu. What began as humanitarian assistance developed into a broad relationship spanning infrastructure, education, health and defence.

The commercial dimension is substantial. A Turkish operator has managed Mogadishu's port under concession, and Turkish firms have been involved in the capital's airport and in road and hospital construction. Turkey also operates a military training facility in Mogadishu, its largest such installation outside its own territory, which has trained a significant portion of the Somali National Army's officer corps.

Ankara has also acted as a mediator. It has hosted talks between Somalia and Ethiopia at moments when the relationship was strained, and its position of relatively good relations with both governments has made it a usable channel when others were closed.

For Mogadishu the relationship offers investment and training without the conditionality attached to some Western assistance. For Ankara it offers strategic presence on the Gulf of Aden and a commercial foothold in a market with substantial reconstruction requirements.