Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi said here Tuesday that the reopening of the Somali embassy in Ethiopia is a beginning of a new integration, good neighborhood, and cooperation between the two countries.

At the reopening of the Somali embassy in Addis Ababa, Gedi said the reopening of the embassy marks the end of the "artificial misunderstanding and animosity that used to be between the two countries."

Due to a fierce border war in Ethiopia's Somali-speaking region of Ogaden in 1977, Somalia and Ethiopia regarded each other cautiously. In December last year, the two countries signed a cooperation agreement providing for working together in economic, political and social sectors.

Gedi said Ethiopia has been exerting utmost efforts in restoring peace and stability in Somalia in the spirit of neighborhood and partnership.

The Somali embassy in Ethiopia is the first reopened embassy under the auspices of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia accredited to Ethiopia and the African Union (AU), Gedi said.

The reopening of the Somali embassy in Addis Ababa "plays a vital role in bringing Somalia into the subregional, regional and international community and will strengthen and develop the existing ties between the two countries, the AU and other partners, " he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said the reopening of the embassy of Somalia in Addis Ababa "symbolizes the closing of the dark chapter in the history of the people of Somalia."

Seyoum said the reopening of the embassy is also an expression of hope for the future of Somalia and will facilitate more enhanced contact between the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and the international community.

Ethiopia has already decided to open its embassy in Jowhar, the seat of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, and designated an ambassador to Somalia, Seyoum said.

Somalia, the Horn of Africa nation, has had no functioning central government since 1991.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Gedi relocated from Kenya in June last year and have been based in the provincial town of Jowhar, after deciding the capital Mogadishu -- controlled by warlords -- was too unsafe to act as a seat of government.

Source: Xinhua