By David Gauthier-Villars
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 22 (Reuters) – The president of Somaliland was at the World Economic Forum this week to win international recognition for his country and pitch investment opportunities in the East African nation.
One of his main meetings, according to an aide, was with Eric Trump, son of the U.S. president Donald Trump and a leading executive of the Trump family’s sprawling business spanning from real estate to crypto.
On Wednesday, while Donald Trump was delivering a speech to an international audience of chief executives at the Davos forum, the Somaliland president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, met with Eric Trump in a nearby hotel conference room.
Also attending the meeting was Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, whose country recognized Somaliland last month—a first by any United Nations member.
During the closed-door meeting, Abdullahi outlined investment opportunities in Somaliland, notably the country’s strategic deep-sea port of Berbera, which sits along one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, according to two people present.
“The meeting went well, it went very well,” the Somaliland president told Reuters on Thursday, confirming his meeting with both Eric Trump and Herzog.
A spokeswoman for Eric Trump did not respond to a message seeking comment.
In a post on X that did not mention Eric Trump, Herzog said he had been pleased to meet with his Somaliland counterpart in the Swiss resort.
During Trump’s first term, the family’s self-imposed ethical guidelines prohibited them from seeking new business outside the U.S. Yet, days before his second inauguration, the Trump Organization, as the family business is known, released revised guidelines that jettisoned that constraint.
The White House did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Somaliland has enjoyed effective autonomy – and relative peace and stability – since 1991 when Somalia descended into civil war, but the breakaway region has struggled to receive recognition.
(Reporting by David Gauthier-Villars in Davos, Switzerland; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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