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Türkiye Expresses Continued Support for Somalia, With Emphasis on Defense

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on Saturday with his Somalian counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (Turkish presidency)
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on Saturday with his Somalian counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (Turkish presidency)
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Türkiye Expresses Continued Support for Somalia, With Emphasis on Defense

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on Saturday with his Somalian counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (Turkish presidency)
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on Saturday with his Somalian counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (Turkish presidency)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday affirmed his country’s ongoing commitment to supporting Somalia across various domains, with a specific emphasis on defense.
During talks with his Somalian counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Erdogan also expressed Türkiye's readiness to engage in any mediation efforts to address the tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia.
The two presidents met on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.
The meeting addressed Türkiye-Somalia relations, Israel's massacres in the Palestinian territory as well as humanitarian aid, the fight against terrorism, and regional and global issues, the country’s Communications Directorate said on X.
The meeting was attended by Türkiye’s National Defense Minister Yasar Guler, the country’s National Intelligence Organization’s head Ibrahim Kalin, and the president’s chief advisor Akif Cagatay Kilic.
On February 8, the two countries signed the Defense and Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, which involved cooperation in the fight against terrorism as well as military-financial cooperation. The deal was signed between Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and his Somali counterpart, Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, in Ankara.
The ten-year agreement will see Ankara train and provide equipment to the Somali Navy, and will also support economic infrastructure construction, marine resource protection, counterterrorism efforts, and prevention of all illegal activities along Somalia's coastline.
In a televised address on the day of the signing, the Somali President noted that the deal is not aimed at confronting Ethiopia or invading any other country.
Under the deal, Türkiye will protect Somalia’s 3,000-kilometer coastline, bordering Kenya and Ethiopia to the west and Djibouti to the northwest.
It is still unclear whether such protection will include the Gulf of Aden and the Somaliland, which declared its independence in 1991 but is still recognized internationally as part of Somalia.
Though Ankara does not officially recognize Somaliland, it maintains a good relationship with the small state on the coast of the Gulf of Aden.
In an opinion published last month, Somalian Defense Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur said the agreement signed with Türkiye proclaims “our shared commitment to collaboration, our deep-seated trust in each other, and our collective affirmation of the significance of global security.”
He noted that the strategic implications of this agreement are poised to safeguard the interests of the wider international community.
“As evidenced by the situation in Yemen, Somalia's strategic geopolitical location and the surrounding political dynamics are crucial to global welfare and peace,” Nur added.
Strategic experts, including former Turkish ambassador to Chad and Senegal Ahmet Kavas, say the agreement between Türkiye and Somalia has significant repercussions in the Horn of Africa.
Kavas said Yemen, Djibouti, and Somalia are located on both sides of the Gulf of Aden. He explained that Britain, France, the US, and Israel have great influence in the Horn of Africa where they built military bases in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Djibouti.
“Now, Türkiye will have a military presence in Somalia and therefore, it is possible that Ankara will start to protect the coastal waters in the Gulf of Aden using its warships. Of course, this will lead to a change of power balances,” he explained.
 

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NATO and Ukraine to Hold Emergency Talks after Russia’s Attack with New Hypersonic Missile

A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
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NATO and Ukraine to Hold Emergency Talks after Russia’s Attack with New Hypersonic Missile

A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)

NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.

The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.”

Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday's Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech to his nation that the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was retaliation for Kyiv’s use of US and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Putin said Western air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov kept up Russia's bellicose tone on Friday, blaming “the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries” in supplying weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia.

"The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns were not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined," he said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow's talking points, suggesting the use of US-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely requires direct American involvement.

“These are rockets that are fired and then guided to a target via an electronic system, which requires the world’s most advanced technology and satellite communications capability,” Orban said on state radio. “There is a strong assumption ... that these missiles cannot be guided without the assistance of American personnel.”

Orban cautioned against underestimating Russia’s responses, emphasizing that the country’s recent modifications to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a “bluff.” “It’s not a trick... there will be consequences,” he said.

Separately in Kyiv, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called Thursday's missile strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe.”

At a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Lipavský also expressed his full support for delivering the necessary additional air defense systems to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks.”

He underlined that the Czech Republic will impose no limits on the use of its weapons and equipment given to Ukraine.

Three lawmakers from Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, confirmed that Friday's previously scheduled session was called off due to the ongoing threat of Russian missiles targeting government buildings in central Kyiv.

In addition, there also was a recommendation to limit the work of all commercial offices and nongovernmental organizations "in that perimeter, and local residents were warned of the increased threat,” said lawmaker Mykyta Poturaiev, who added this is not the first time such a threat has been received.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office continued to work in compliance with standard security measures, a spokesperson said.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the Oreshnik missile, whose name in Russian means “hazelnut tree,” was fired from the Kapustin Yar 4th Missile Test Range in Russia’s Astrakhan region, and flew 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. The missile had six nonnuclear warheads each carrying six submunitions and reached a spoeed of Mach 11, it said.

Test launches of a similar missile were conducted in October 2023 and June 2024, the directorate said. The Pentagon confirmed the missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.

Thursday's attack struck the Pivdenmash plant that built ICBMs when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The military facility is located about 4 miles (6 1/2 kilometers) southwest of the center of Dnipro, a city of about 1 million that is Ukraine’s fourth-largest and a key hub for military supplies and humanitarian aid, and is home to one of the country’s largest hospitals for treating wounded soldiers from the front before their transfer to Kyiv or abroad.

The stricken area was cordoned off and out of public view. With no fatalities reported from the attack, Dnipro residents resorted to dark humor on social media, mostly focused on the missile’s name, Oreshnik.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia struck a residential district of Sumy overnight with Iranian-designed Shahed drones, killing two people and injuring 13, the regional administration said..

Ukraine’s Suspilne media, quoting Sumy regional head Volodymyr Artiukh, said the drones were stuffed with shrapnel elements. “These weapons are used to destroy people, not to destroy objects,” said Artiukh, according to Suspilne.