Six new envoys accredited to carry out their duty tour in Ghana presented their letters of Credence to President John Mahama at the credential hall of the Flagstaff House, Kanda.
The new ambassadors who are beginning official diplomatic duties are H.E. Jon Benjamin representing the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, the Swiss Confederation Ambassador, H.E. Gerhard Brugger and H.E. Arafan Kaba from Guinea.
The other non-residential officials who were also received by the President were Professor Alejandro Israel Correa Ortega of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Rt. Hon. Lockwood Smith from New Zealand and Joseph Habineza from Rwanda.
Conferring in separate meetings with President Mahama, the envoys indicated their readiness to deepen cooperation with Ghana in several fields of endeavor, with each of them putting on the table their specialties that could be leveraged to mutually benefit Ghana and their countries.
In his meeting with High Commissioner Jon Benjamin, President John Dramani Mahama revealed that his government is speeding up the process for the signing of an agreement with the United Kingdom (UK) on the transfer of prisoners.
According to him, the agreement, when signed, will ensure that prisoners from the two countries were sent to their countries of origin to complete the final part of their prison sentence.
President Mahama further expressed his hope for a mutual understanding on the issue by both two countries as soon as possible.
Mr. Benjamin, in turn, said the two countries shared important values of democracy and good governance and added that the UK was keen on supporting Ghana to overcome its economic challenges.
Welcoming the Swiss Ambassador, President Mahama described the relations between the two countries as “solid” and expressed the hope that the future would see further development in the relations.
He said Ghana would count on Switzerland to develop the country’s small and medium enterprises, which were key to advancing economic development.
For his part, Mr. Brugger said Ghana was progressing economically and pledged his country’s support in that respect.
Receiving the Guinean Ambassador, President Mahama touched on the integration of the sub-continent and indicated that Guinea and Ghana had a role to play in attaining that objective.
He said Ghana was positioning itself as the hub for energy production, stressing that it would enable the country to supply power to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
Mr. Kaba expressed delight at the long-standing relations between the two countries.
He mentioned the strides the current generation of leaders in Africa were making in building their respective countries and the continent and said Ghana and Guinea were proud to be part of that leadership.
He presented a letter from the Guinean President, Prof Alpha Conde, to President Mahama inviting him to pay a state visit to Guinea.
Receiving the letters of credence of the Rwandan envoy, President Mahama noted the significant economic progress that country had made since the end of the genocide.
He said Ghana was in the process of completing a general cooperation agreement with Rwanda.
Mr. Habineza pledged to work assiduously to build on the existing relations between the two countries.
President Mahama said although relations between Ghana and New Zealand were cordial, there was still a lot of work to do to bring them together.
He called for New Zealand’s support in the transfer of technical knowledge and renewable energy.
Dr. Smith said New Zealand was determined to take its bilateral relations with Ghana to another level.
President Mahama acknowledged scholarships that Venezuela gave to Ghanaian students in 2010 to study medicine and food science.
He also welcomed the decision by Venezuela to support ECOWAS to set up a factory for the production of lavaecide to fight the breeding of mosquitoes.
The envoy said although he would be stationed outside Ghana, he would work as if he lived in the country.
By: Prince Asare, Diplomatic Call
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