India, Dec. 27 -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first to recognise Somaliland as an "independent and sovereign state", decades after the region has been vying for the recognition since 1991 when it unilaterally seceded from Somalia.

The territory is located in the Horn of Africa, in the northwestern part of Somalia, sharing coastline with the Gulf of Aden and bordering Djibouti.

"I congratulated the President of Somaliland, Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdallah, and praised his leadership and commitment to promoting stability and peace. I invited the President to pay an official visit to Israel," Netanyahu wrote in a post on X.

However, his move did not sit well with several nations across the world, including Israel's st...