Somalia and Serbia leaders sign healthcare accord, commit to stronger ties

Somalia and Serbia Reach for Old Ties to Shape New Deals

In the polished halls of Belgrade’s presidential complex, Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre stood beneath a bank of flags and spoke a sentence you now hear in capitals across the Global South: “Somalia offers vast opportunities for investment.”

On Tuesday, Barre and Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut signed a health cooperation agreement and pledged to deepen ties in trade, investment, education and security—an agenda that reads less like a single visit than a map for a relationship being redrawn. The two sides described a shared intention to revive links that date to the heyday of the Non-Aligned Movement, when Belgrade and Mogadishu moved in similar diplomatic orbits, even as wars and state collapse later pushed them far apart.

A handshake anchored in health

The first deliverable is in health—a sensible opening bid for two countries that have learned hard lessons about resilience. The agreement is short on public details, but health cooperation typically means training, exchanges among public institutions, and supply chain support for medicines and equipment. Serbia has long-standing biomedical capacity—including vaccine production expertise—while Somalia is rebuilding clinics and public health systems after decades of conflict and recurrent drought.

In practical terms, health diplomacy is a low-risk, high-return way to begin. Even small programs—specialist training for nurses, lab technicians, or epidemiologists—can ripple through fragile health systems. If Belgrade opens its medical universities or labs to Somali trainees, it would align with broader trends since the pandemic, when mid-sized nations used health partnerships to punch above their geopolitical weight.

From the Adriatic to the Indian Ocean: trade beyond the ribbon-cutting

Barre used his Belgrade podium to sell Somalia’s “blue economy”—a phrase that, to many outside Africa, can sound abstract until you look at a map. Somalia has the longest coastline on mainland Africa, more than 3,000 kilometers along the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. The fisheries potential—tuna, lobster, and coastal aquaculture—is real, if underdeveloped. Add in agriculture and livestock, sectors still employing most Somalis, and you start to see why the prime minister extended an invitation for Serbian businesses to come to Mogadishu and see for themselves.

Serbia, for its part, has industrial know-how in food processing, irrigation, and veterinary science—fields that map neatly onto Somalia’s strengths. The Horn of Africa is a major livestock supplier to the Gulf, and improvements in cold chain, animal health, and value-added processing could boost incomes far from the capital. If trade follows diplomacy, you might see joint ventures in agro-processing or fisheries logistics rather than splashy infrastructure deals.

Barre was received with high honors, a signal that Belgrade sees opportunity too. As an EU candidate country, Serbia is fluent in European standards but increasingly pragmatic in cultivating partners across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. For Somali entrepreneurs, connecting through Serbia could open doors to niche European markets without the full costs of operating in the EU core.

Security talks in a post-embargo moment

Parallel to the prime ministerial meeting, Somali Defense Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi held talks with senior Serbian officials, including Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Ivica Dačić, Security and Information Agency Director Vladimir Orlić, and Defense Minister Bratislav Gašić. The focus: expanding security and defense cooperation and building what both sides called a strategic partnership.

The timing matters. The United Nations lifted its long-standing arms embargo on Somalia in late 2023, a milestone that shifts how external partners engage on security assistance. That does not automatically translate into arms deals—Somalia’s priorities are just as likely to include policing, border management, intelligence-sharing, and training for specialized units. Serbia, with a legacy defense industry and a reputation for training police and gendarmes across the Balkans and beyond, can offer packages that stop short of hardware alone.

Why this, why now?

It is easy to see a grip-and-grin and dismiss it as calendar filler. But the Somalis and Serbs are tapping into a larger current. Across the Global South, mid-sized states are diversifying relationships—beyond traditional big-power patrons, and beyond purely aid-driven ties. This is not a rejection of the West or East so much as a pragmatic search for partners who bring technology, training and access without heavy political baggage.

Somalia is trying to exit a long emergency: consolidating federal institutions, combating al-Shabaab, and turning macroeconomic milestones—debt relief, IMF programs—into improvements in daily life. Diversifying partners is part of that. Serbia, meanwhile, is meeting Africa where it is: bustling, competitive, and open to a patchwork of suitors from Turkey to the Gulf, India to Brazil, China to Eastern Europe. Belgrade’s message is that it can be a nimble, technically competent partner—especially in sectors like health, agriculture, and security training—without insisting on the deep footprint that larger powers sometimes bring.

The Non-Aligned echo

There is also the weight of history. The Non-Aligned Movement’s first summit was held in Belgrade in 1961, a gathering of leaders—Tito, Nasser, Nehru—that helped small and mid-sized states carve out strategic space during the Cold War. Somalia was part of that tradition. The movement has shifted and thinned, but the muscle memory remains: a preference for multiple channels, a comfort with parallel relationships, and a diplomatic style that prizes balance.

The symbolism of Belgrade hosting an African leader to revive cooperation is not lost on local audiences; nor is the subtext for Mogadishu, which is leaning into an image of a country that is open for business, not simply open for peacekeepers. History doesn’t guarantee outcomes, but it offers a language both sides still speak.

What to watch next

• Details on the health agreement: Are we looking at scholarships, hospital twinning, or vaccine and lab partnerships? Announcements in the coming months will show whether this is headline or program.
• Business delegations: The prime minister invited Serbian firms to Mogadishu. A trade mission—especially one focused on agribusiness and fisheries—would be an early litmus test.
• Security cooperation guardrails: With the arms embargo lifted, transparency will matter. Training, oversight and human rights standards will shape how far and how fast cooperation goes.
• Regional knock-on effects: Somalia’s neighbors—from Kenya to the Gulf states—are watching new entrants closely. Partnerships that enhance connectivity rather than duplicate efforts will find more regional support.

Diplomacy is often measured in the quiet middle distance—months after the handshakes, when dispersed teams in hospitals, ports and police academies decide whether the words on paper carry weight. For now, Belgrade and Mogadishu have reached back into a shared past to sketch a practical, sector-by-sector future. In a world where big powers set the weather, mid-sized nations like these are learning to read the wind and trim the sail.

“Somalia offers vast opportunities for investment,” Barre said, inviting the Serbian government and private sector to Mogadishu. The line is part pitch, part promise. The proof, as always, will be in who shows up—and what they build together.

By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.