President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and his Somali counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud have signed a joint political declaration elevating relations to the strategic partnership level.
“We are here today to launch a new era of deep cooperation,” Al-Sisi said during the joint press conference that followed their meeting in Cairo last week.
The Somali president wrote on his X account that “the declaration marks a new chapter in our partnership, focusing on education, security, trade, and stronger bilateral cooperation.”
While boosting bilateral relations in these areas is part and parcel of normal relations, points out Ali Al-Hefni, a former deputy to Egypt’s foreign minister, a strategic partnership expands activities to include military, security and intelligence cooperation, and allows for regular strategic dialogue at the presidential and ministerial levels.
The reason for the expansion, explains Al-Hefni, is the threat that unrest in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea poses to each country’s security.
The declaration explicitly states that the partnership will involve military and security cooperation, regular political consultations at the summit and ministerial level, and the forming of a joint committee charged with enhancing cultural, educational, and judicial cooperation.
According to the declaration, closer economic ties in the fields of agriculture and livestock, fish farming, construction, transport, financial and banking services, oil, gas and renewable energy are also being planned.
Al-Hefni identifies “a clear need for counterterrorism cooperation” in several African regions, including in the Horn of Africa where Somalia has been fighting the Islamist Al-Shabab group for nearly two decades.
“Egypt has experience in counterterrorism and can share its know-how with Somali security and intelligence bodies and through training and the exchange of information between relevant agencies, with the goal of helping Somalia eradicate terrorism.”
During their meeting, Al-Sisi and Mohamud discussed Egyptian forces’ participation in the new African Union (AU) mission in Somalia at length.
The AU Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) started to combat terrorist groups at the beginning of January, replacing the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) that began in 2022.
“Egypt’s participation in the mission is positive. For 30 years we have been pained by what is happening in Somalia. Our participation shows our solidarity,” said Al-Sisi.
The two leaders also signed a visa exemption agreement for holders of diplomatic passports, and reaffirmed the role of the tripartite Asmara Summit, held in October last year and attended by the heads of Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea, in boosting coordination between the three countries.
During the October summit, the three leaders agreed to work to strengthen Somalia’s state institutions so they might better face internal and external challenges, including all forms of terrorism.
A second trilateral summit is expected to be held this year.
The main aim of the Asmara tripartite meeting was to kickstart an extended dialogue about ways to maintain Egyptian and Somali national security as well as security in the Red Sea, says Al-Hefni, and to serve notice to Ethiopia that Egypt will not tolerate non-littoral states interfering in Red Sea security.
In January last year, Ethiopia signed a deal with Somaliland under which Ethiopia would gain access to the Red Sea in exchange for recognising the breakaway state. Mogadishu continues to consider Somaliland as part of Somali territory.
On the regional level, both Cairo and Mogadishu aim to use their enhanced collaboration to help neighbouring Sudan eliminate terrorism and enforce sovereignty over its entire territory.
Last week’s meeting in Cairo was the fourth between Al-Sisi and Mohamud in a year.
While meeting in Cairo in August last year, the two presidents oversaw the signing of a military cooperation protocol aimed at reinforcing the capabilities of Somalia’s national institutions to maintain security and stability and combat extremism.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 30 January, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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