Defence deal 'not an invasion' – US Ambassador

U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P. Jackson, says the military agreement between Ghana and the U.S. does not amount to an invasion of the West African country.

According to him, there are different programmes that will take place at different times of the year, adding that each exercise will not have more than 200 U.S. troops on Ghana’s soil.

Mr Jackson explained that U.S. troops are assigned to various exercises and will leave Ghana as soon as they complete an assignment.

The U.S. Ambassador said his country’s will fully cooperate with the Ghana Armed Forces and political authorities in undertaking three mutually beneficial military exercises this year, which will involve training on counter-terrorism, response to disaster exercises and security-related programmes.

“For each exercise, we are looking at up to 200 Americans, and to my knowledge, in recent years, we have never brought in more than that; and for the time being, at the level of operations, we don’t contemplate bringing more than that in. So, this is not an invasion, I want to be clear about that,” Mr Jackson told Joy News’ Gifty Andoh on Thursday, 22 March 2018.

His comments come in the wake of news on Tuesday, 20 March that Ghana’s Cabinet has approved an agreement granting access to the U.S. to establish a military base in Ghana. It also indicated that Ghana has also agreed to bear the cost of the base and take primary responsibility for securing U.S. military facilities in the country.

Mr Jackson says the $20million U.S. commitment to Ghana in terms of equipment, skills and training for this year only, is enough benefit for the people of Ghana.