By: Yusuf M Hasan
Somalilandsun- A high powered delegation from Prague is in Hargeisa the first ever to Somaliland by the Central European nation.
The delegation composed of senior Czech Republic officials, business and humanitarian organizations leaders is in the country to establish diplomatic and trade relations
This intentions were re walked during a meeting president Ahmed Mahmud Silanyo chaired between the visiting Czech Republic delegation and Somaliland government officials at the presidency in Hargeisa.
During a post meeting presser foreign minister Dr Saad Ali Shire upon thanking the team from Prague hoped that their current visit which is the first from the Eastern European country shall not be the last.
“This visit gives our citizens hope in fruition of their quest for international recognition as a sovereign country” said Dr Saad Ali
The remarks by the foreign minister were in reference to the international recognition of the Czech Republic as a sovereign country in 1993 following collapse of Czechoslavakia
The visiting delegation’s spokesperson who thanked the government and People of Somaliland said that the two countries shared political backgrounds is the impetus behind their visit and subsequent plans to establish close relations at the diplomatic and trade levels.
The Czech Republic, in Central Europe, is renowned for its peaceful separation , subbed velvet separation, with Slovakia following the collapse of former republic of Czechoslovakia.
The Dissolution of Czechoslovakia which took effect on 1 January 1993, was an event that saw the self-determined split of the federal state of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, entities which had arisen before as the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic in 1969 within the framework of Czechoslovak federalisation.
This separation is sometimes known as the Velvet Divorce, a reference to the bloodless Velvet Revolutionof 1989 that led to the end of the rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the formation of a democratic government.
In 1991 Somaliland withdrew from its 1960 voluntary but later turned fateful union with Somalia, though 25 years later the former British protectorate remains unrecognized internationally
Watch
The meeting and joint Czech Republic and Somaliland press briefing
