US House committee calls for Somaliland office to counter China

[Deeq A.]

An influential US-China subcommittee in the US House of Representatives is calling for the State Department to open a representative office in Somaliland, the breakaway state in Somalia, to counter rising Chinese influence in the region.

“Such a move is critical for advancing US strategic interests in the Horn of Africa and countering the growing influence” of China, wrote John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, in a letter dated Jan. 15 and addressed to outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “Without US engagement, [China] may succeed in shifting Somaliland’s interests in its favor, further consolidating its influence in the Red Sea and beyond,” it said.

The United States, along with the rest of the international community, does not recognize Somaliland as a country. Last month Semafor reported that Somaliland will be much closer to being recognized by the US as the world’s newest country when Donald Trump returns to the White House.

While foreign affairs committees often send letters to the State Department, this one has significance because it has moved discussions around the future of Somaliland into the much more potent US-China sphere, said Cameron Hudson, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “If the Somaliland issue is embraced by China-hawks to push back against China’s influence then that is a serious departure from past discussions and increases the likelihood that it will be actively pursued,” he said.

Know More

The call comes as Somalilanders, who declared independence in 1991, are hoping that the incoming Trump administration will greatly improve their chances of international recognition with support from the US. Several of Trump’s incoming Africa officials have been publicly much more willing to consider some form of recognition for the state of 4 million people.

Somaliland is strategically located in geopolitical and trade terms with key global military and shipping interests in the region that could help the US counter China. In particular, the Bab-el Mandeb strait in the Gulf of Aden between Somaliland’s Berbera port, Djibouti, and Yemen is widely seen as a critical shipping choke point for moving goods and military wares in the sub-region.

SEMAFOR

Qaran News