Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire On New Path

Ghanaian and Ivorian officials have resolved to bury their differences and chart a new course after the famous International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) had ruled on the delimitation of the maritime boundary between the two countries.

After two days of meeting behind closed door, officials of the two countries came out yesterday with a working plan on how to, among other things, implement the roadmap of the ITLOS ruling.

This was contained in a communiqué signed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the two countries, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, representing Ghana and Marcel Amon Tanoh, Cote d'Ivoire.

Both President Akufo-Addo of Ghana and Alassane Outtara of Cote d'Ivoire – who ended his two-day official visit to Ghana yesterday – acknowledged the spirit of brotherliness with which the maritime dispute between the two countries was handled from the beginning.

In this connection, the two leaders expressed their commitment to ensure the smooth implementation of the ruling by the Special Chamber of the ITLOS.

Agreements
In order to achieve this, “the two leaders announced the establishment of a Joint Committee for the Implementation of the ITLOS judgement and indicated that the composition of the committee would be decided later.”

Both presidents indicated their commitment to ensure the continuous deepening of brotherly ties beyond the existing framework for bilateral cooperation, such as the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation, and agreed to boost the momentum of Ghanaian-Ivorian Cooperation by establishing a strategic cooperation framework referred to as the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA).

It covers defence and security, cocoa and cashew and other strategic crops, maritime cooperation, mining, energy and environment, transport and economic policies.

The two leaders noted that peace and security constitute a sine qua non for development and, therefore agreed to strengthen cooperation in the area of defence and security to combat human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking and the proliferation of arms.

Presidents Akufo-Addo and Outtara agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation for the development of a win-win strategy for a sustainable cocoa industry.

In this regard, they expressed commitment to the ongoing discussions between the Ghana Cocoa Board and Le Conseil Café-Cacao to develop joint marketing strategies on the international trading platform and other related issues in the industry, and pledged to work together to enhance border security to curb the smuggling of cocoa.

After two days of deliberations, the two countries jointly signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA), a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Geological and Mineral Cooperation and a MoU for Industrial Cooperation.

They also signed another MoU for the Establishment of a Joint Technical Experts Sub-Committee for the Monitoring of Pollution from the Illegal Mining activities in the Bia and Tano River Basins – between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

The two leaders also agreed to meet at least once every year, alternately in each other's country to guide and promote the implantation of the common strategic policies.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent