Somalilandsun: With the Ambassador Donald Yamamoto fronted US strategy to recentralize Somalia having failed, pursuing the same is now actively counterproductive to Horn of Africa regional security and American strategic interests.
At issue, however, is not just Yamamoto’s failed investment in Farmaajo. Illegal fishing by Chinese and Iranian trawlers again threatens fisheries. Both the Somaliland Coast Guard and Puntland Maritime Police Force do their best to secure their respective coasts but lack enough boats or the fuel to operate them. Villagers along the Somaliland and Puntland coasts have an interest in the security of their own waters but sometimes lack the ability to report those infringing on territorial waters in order to facilitate interception
So the protection of Somalia’s coast, at 1,880 miles the second-largest coastline in Africa, is a U.S. strategic interest in addition to
the Biden administration cconsidering ore permanent liaison officethe since Yamamoto’s efforts to isolate Somaliland are not only counterproductive given the strategic terrain and pro-Western orientation of the state, but also reverse the State Department’s previous two-track policy. Just as the United States engages separately with mainland China and Taiwan,
Thus President Joe Biden should recognize that a policy of either deploying to Somalia or neglecting it is a false choice argues Michael Rubin a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute HERE
