Turkish army Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar (L) escorts Somalia Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheire during an inauguration ceremony of the Turkish military base in Mogadishu on September 30, 2017. (AFP Photo)

ANKARA, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Turkey opened its biggest overseas military base on Saturday in Somalia's capital to cement bilateral ties and build a presence in East Africa, Turkey military source said.

More than 10,000 Somali soldiers will be trained by Turkish officers at the base, a senior Turkish official said.

The opening of the military base signals ever-closer ties between Turkey and Somalia.

Turkey's relations with the Horn of Africa date back to the Ottoman Empire, but President Tayyip Erdogan's government has become a close ally of the Somali government in recent years.

"It is a country where Turkey could make a difference without necessarily having to compete with regional or global powers," said Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.