Ghana's ECOWAS Chairmanship has contributed to peace - Diplomat

Winneba, Feb. 21, GNA - A retired diplomat, Ambassador Joseph Cleland, on Friday said Ghana's chairmanship of ECOWAS for a second term has seen progress in containing the explosive situations in Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and Cape Verde.

He was speaking at a two-day workshop on "the dynamics of the contemporary international system and Ghana's foreign policy," organised by the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA) of the University of Ghana, Legon.

It was under the sponsorship of the Government of Ghana and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to promote public participation in discussions on Ghana's role on the international scene. About 200 participants from the University of Education Winneba, representatives from the Gomoa, Agona and the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Assemblies and District Directors of Education attended. It was also to promote the appreciation of international events and the Ghana's contribution.

Ambassador Cleland noted that President Kufuor's initiative to foster understanding and co-operation in 2001 with Togo, Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire had helped to improve cordial relations, adding that, "his spirit of good neighbourliness has helped to improve the climate in ECOWAS".

He said "while it is true that modest economic achievement have been overshadowed by civil wars, the result of 'misgovernance,' ethnicity and poverty, the fault still remains that diverse linguistic groups - Francophone, Anglophone and others have seen the wisdom in breaking down barriers in the interest of collective self-reliance".

Ambassador Cleland said with the transition from the OAU to the African Union (AU) strengthened with the New Partnership of Africa's Development (NEPAD), there is a renewed effort to give greater attention to economic and other issues.

He said African leader have committed themselves to good governance, multi-party democracy and better observance of human rights. On the international arena, Ambassador Cleland said "our membership of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the Non-Alliance Movement and others, as enjoined in the constitution permits us to continue to forge partnership with other countries to address the myriads of global problems".

In a paper, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, said Ghana's foreign policy in West Africa had been driven primarily by the quest for peace and good neighbourliness.

According to him, under the regimes of both the NDC and NPP, Ghana had stood firm in the pursuit of peace in West Africa, especially in Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone.

Maintaining and building peace remains a short and medium term goal for Ghana's foreign policy in the sub-region, but beyond building the peace, the real constructive work of regional integration confront the people of the sub-region, which must be vigorously tackled, he declared. Mr Adu-Amankwah said the initiative towards breaking tariff barriers, establishing a common currency and guarantee free movements of goods and people, must be supported by all Africans.

Professor Jophus Anamuah Mensah, Vice Chancellor of the UEW, expressed the hope that the workshop would contribute towards the maintenance of the country's young democracy.

He said the world had become a global village where anything happening in any country affects the other and appealed to the participants to use the knowledge gained at the workshop profitably.