Ghana's foreign relations chalked success

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, has stated that the NPP foreign policy direction had chalked tremendous success due to the pragmatic execution of set goals.

According to him, the government succeeded in balancing the NPP's "beliefs as a liberal democratic party seeking for good governance, the rule of law and human rights with the needs of Ghana's position in the comity of nations."

Mr Owusu-Agyeman was assessing the foreign relations over the past two years in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Koforidua on Wednesday.

"Right now, President J.A. Kufuor is highly regarded and respected internationally, a situation which has brought about policy spin-off in terms of attracting both official development assistance and foreign direct investments into the country."

He said the domestic policy direction of the NPP administration had "certainly brought positive impact on foreign policy", saying the party's vision had been masterfully crafted and executed to yield the recognition of Ghana's views by both the mighty and small countries on all issues.

"Ghana's opinion and views are being sought on international issues and our policy of good neighbourliness has also paid off handsomely to the extent that now we don't have to spend our scarce resources watching over our borders, thereby putting the resources into areas which will impact positively on the lives of the people," Mr Owusu-Agyeman stated.

The Minister strongly defended President Kufuor's abroad travels, saying they had helped to put Ghana's needs and interests forcefully at both international conferences and bilateral meetings with the country's friends, which had yielded positive results such as debt cancellations, grants, concessionary loans and foreign direct investments.

According to him, there were many important international conferences whose organisers wanted to choose Ghana as the venue because of the high profile the country now enjoyed but the set back was due to the lack of appropriate hotel and accommodation facilities to support the scale of such conferences.

On the Ivorian conflict, Mr Owusu Agyeman said Ghana was working in concert with other ECOWAS countries to ensure that diplomatic moves succeed in bringing about lasting peace in the country now that ECOMOG peacekeeping force was also being put in place.

He said Ghana's position on the resolution of the conflict was the need to craft the political scene in Cote d'Ivoire to bring about an all-inclusive political process that would carry on board all major political stakeholders.

On the refugee situation along the country's borders with Cote d'Ivoire, Mr Owusu-Agyeman said at the moment, the influx rate was "manageable" but there were contingency measures by both Ghana and the UN agencies to contain any eventuality should the situation got worse.

He defended the opening of the borders to refugees, saying it was a humanitarian gesture to allow for both refugees and those in transit, adding however, that the borders were being monitored and controlled to make it easier to identify those arriving in the country to stay or in transit.

On the lessons to be drawn from the Ivorian situation, the Minister said there was the need for policy initiatives by African governments to accommodate the interests of all sections of the people to promote national cohesion in development in all sectors.

Speaking on his Ministry's effort to ensure the welfare of Ghanaians abroad, Mr Owusu Agyeman said all embassies and consulates have been repositioned to seek the welfare of Ghanaians in the countries of their accreditation in all aspects, since the country derived a third of its foreign earnings from them.

Mr Owusu Agyeman called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to put in place the necessary structures that would enable Ghanaians in the Diaspora to exercise their franchise in 2004 as done by other countries for their nationals in the country.