Taiwan and Somaliland signed an agreement on energy and mineral resources cooperation Monday that Taiwan’s office in Somaliland said provides a legal foundation for joint resource exploration and drilling activities and other related initiatives.<\/p>\n
The agreement was signed by Economic Affairs Minister Wang Mei-hua (???) in Taipei and Somaliland Energy and Minerals Minister Abdilahi Farah Abdi in Somaliland at different times on Monday, according to a Facebook post by Taiwan’s representative office in Hargeisa.<\/p>\n
Taiwan’s representative to Somaliland, Allen Lou (???), witnessed Abdi’s signing of the agreement at a ceremony held at Somaliland’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals, according to the representative office.<\/p>\n
The pact is aimed at establishing a solid legal foundation for bilateral energy and mineral resources cooperation, and a task force will be formed to facilitate information sharing, exploration and drilling, capacity building and training, the office said.<\/p>\n
“On the road to energy independence, Taiwan and Somaliland will walk side by side,” the office said.<\/p>\n
During the ceremony, Abdi thanked Taiwan’s government for its support, saying the agreement covered sectors important to Somaliland’s development.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In December 2021, Taiwan’s CPC Corp. signed a farm-out agreement with U.K.-based Genel Energy to acquire 49 percent of the rights to explore the hydrocarbon resources in the SL10B\/13 mining area, and the deal was later approved by the Somaliland government.<\/p>\n
Lou said the first exploration well will be drilled in 2023.<\/p>\n
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has functioned as a de facto state since then, but it has yet to be recognized diplomatically by any other country in the world.<\/p>\n
Taiwan and Somaliland set up representative offices in each other’s capitals in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taiwan and Somaliland signed an agreement on energy and mineral resources cooperation Monday that Taiwan’s office in Somaliland said provides a legal foundation for joint resource exploration and drilling activities and other related initiatives.The ag…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n