Somalia and Saudi Arabia team up on AI and space rules — a small deal with outsized stakes
In a week dominated by big speeches about the future of the internet, one of the more consequential announcements came quietly from the sidelines. Somalia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to build a framework for cooperation on regulating artificial intelligence and space technology — two domains racing ahead faster than most governments can write the rules.
- Advertisement -
The agreement, signed in Riyadh by Mustafa Yasin Sheikh, Director General of Somalia’s National Communications Authority (NCA), and senior Saudi official Haitham Al-Ohali on behalf of the kingdom’s Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), was unveiled during the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR‑25). The annual gathering, co-hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Saudi Arabia’s CST, brought delegations from more than 190 countries to the King Abdulaziz International Conference Centre to wrestle with a hard truth: some 2.6 billion people remain offline, even as AI and satellite services redraw the global digital map.
Why this matters
On paper, a bilateral pledge to share regulatory expertise may sound procedural. In practice, it’s a telling signal of how the Gulf and the Horn of Africa are knitting together around technology and governance. Somalia is rebuilding regulatory institutions after decades of conflict. Saudi Arabia is angling to be a rule-maker in a world where code increasingly outruns law. Put together, the partnership hints at a pragmatic bridge across the Red Sea — one that connects capacity to capital, and ambition to implementation.
It also arrives at a juncture when the stakes of “getting the rules right” are growing. AI systems are moving into critical public services, from health diagnostics to education tools. In space, a proliferation of small satellites is changing everything from weather forecasting to maritime surveillance. Without clear standards, these advances can magnify inequality, entrench bias, or collide with national security concerns. With them, smaller states can leapfrog.
What the deal covers
Officials said the Somalia–Saudi framework will focus on three pillars: regulatory cooperation, exchange of expertise, and guidelines that encourage innovation while curbing harms. Both sides also flagged interest in infrastructure sharing and broader digital collaboration — policies that can speed coverage and cut costs by pooling towers, ducts, and backhaul where markets are thin.
Translated to ground level, that could mean joint training for regulators on AI safety assessments; alignment on spectrum and licensing for space-based services that reach across the Gulf of Aden; and practical toolkits on issues like data protection, algorithmic transparency, and responsible satellite imaging. None of it is headline-grabbing. All of it is what determines whether new tech systems serve the public or simply swell the noise.
Somalia’s digital turn
Somalia’s internet market has expanded rapidly in the past decade as subsea cables and mobile broadband reached its shores. New fintechs and e-commerce ventures have sprouted in Mogadishu and Hargeisa; university labs are teaching machine learning; public agencies are digitizing basic services. But the country still grapples with patchy coverage beyond major cities, a shortage of skilled regulators, and fragmented approaches to data governance.
For Somalia, then, the Saudi tie-up offers more than symbolism. It is a chance to plug into a larger regulatory ecosystem, borrow playbooks that have been tested at scale, and build credibility with investors wary of legal gray zones. It also gives Somalia a seat in conversations about satellite connectivity and Earth observation — tools that could improve drought early warning, monitor fishing grounds, and support security in a sensitive maritime corridor.
Saudi Arabia’s playbook
Riyadh, for its part, has spent the past few years investing heavily in digital infrastructure and policy. Under Vision 2030 and a national AI strategy, the kingdom has pushed for data center capacity, skills programs, and a regulatory posture that can attract global firms while projecting its own standards in the region. Its space ambitions, once nascent, now include a growing roster of partnerships and an assertive regulator in CST.
By working with a neighbor across the water, Saudi Arabia adds a diplomatic brushstroke to that strategy: becoming a convener and technical mentor for emerging markets shaping their first-generation rules in AI and space. It also extends Saudi influence into a corridor that matters for undersea cables, shipping lanes, and energy routes — infrastructure that increasingly depends on shared norms to run smoothly.
The global regulatory puzzle
The timing is also notable. Around the world, governments are taking divergent paths on AI oversight. The European Union has passed a landmark AI Act with tiered risk categories and hard compliance obligations. The United States is leaning on executive orders, voluntary commitments, and agency guidance. Many African countries are drafting first-wave data protection and AI policies, often with help from regional blocs and development partners.
In space, the regulatory picture is similarly crowded. Mega-constellations compete for orbital slots; startups promise cutting-edge Earth imagery; and defense planners navigate a domain that is no longer dominated by a handful of states. For smaller nations, the question isn’t whether to regulate, but how to do so without suffocating innovation or ceding control to foreign standards by default.
That is where arrangements like the Somalia–Saudi framework can do quiet work. They won’t make headlines like a new satellite launch, but they can accelerate harmonization, reduce compliance costs for companies operating across borders, and give regulators in Mogadishu the confidence to say yes — and no — with clarity.
Mind the gaps
Any cooperation of this kind has pitfalls. Data-sharing without robust protections can expose citizens to surveillance or commercial abuse. Importing standards wholesale can crowd out local context. And focusing on AI and satellites risks overlooking basic needs: affordable smartphones, reliable electricity, and local-language content that makes the internet meaningful.
But the venue where this deal was announced is a reminder of the balance policymakers are trying to strike. The ITU’s GSR‑25 gathering in Riyadh was framed around closing the digital divide while preparing for the next technological wave. The headline number — 2.6 billion offline — hangs over every conversation. A regulatory blueprint that treats AI guardrails and tower sharing as two sides of the same coin is, at least, a move in the right direction.
What to watch
- The first joint workstreams: Will the partners publish a timeline, and will training or pilot projects show up in Somalia’s regulatory docket within the year?
- Alignment with regional frameworks: How will this fit with African Union digital policies, the Smart Africa Alliance, and broader Red Sea cooperation?
- Space services for public good: Do early projects prioritize climate resilience, agriculture, and maritime safety — areas with fast social returns?
- Transparency: Will the NCA and CST invite public input on AI guidelines and satellite licensing, an emerging best practice worldwide?
In a packed week of global tech talk, this deal will not dominate your news feed. Yet, in the long arc of how the internet and near-Earth orbit are governed, these cross-sea alliances may matter more than splashy keynotes. They are the stitches that hold together a patchwork future — one where a coder in Mogadishu can tap satellite imagery to track a locust swarm, or a startup in Jeddah can scale a health AI safely into East Africa, because their regulators learned, and legislated, together.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
