After 23 years, China’s embassy in Somalia is set to be reopened after Wei Hongtian, Chargés d’affaires of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, presented his credentials to Somalia’s foreign minister Abdirahman Mohamed Beileh at a ceremony in Mogadishu. The appointment of the Chinese diplomat comes after more than 20 years of hiatus in the China diplomatic presence in the Somali capital Mogadishu following the outbreak of the civil conflict in 1991. Somali foreign minister Beileh hailed the appointment of the Chinese diplomat as a sign of the country’s improving security and its relations with the outside world.