US-Ghana 2018 Military Agreement-Correction Of Misconceptions

For the purpose of this article, I used the below as my source of analysis

a) Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961
b) Africa Crisis Response Initiative, 1998
c) Humanitarian Relief Operation, 2000
d) Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, 2015
e) Regional Training Program, 2012
f) Defence Co-operation, the Status of United States Forces, and Access to and use of Agreed Facilities and Areas, 2018

g) Joint committee on Defense and Interior and Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Report, 2018

I will start with the correction of the misconceptions in relation to the "Defence Co-operation, the Status of United States Forces, and Access to and use of Agreed Facilities and Areas, 2018" with an analysis with some Articles under the "Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961". Note, all Articles I will state under this section are that of the "Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961" unless otherwise stated.

Ghana was made a part of this Vienna convention under its first President, Kwame Nkrumah. Members of the United Nation (UN) can be part of the convention, all other members who can also be part can be found at Article 48.

A Sender State under this Convention means country/countries going to another country for a diplomatic mission, and the Receiving State is a country receiving other nationals on a mission in its country. A diplomatic mission can be that of security, embassy, health, consulate and others.

Some of the privileges which should be enjoyed by the sending state in the receiving state are;

a) A sender state's use of her flags and emblems in the receiver state-Article 20

b) i) A receiver state can not enter the premises of the sender state without the consent of the head of mission- Article 22(1)

ii) private residence, Documents, archives of the diplomat, and the diplomatic bags shall be inviolable or shall not be searched- Articles 22, 27(3)(4)

c) The receiving state must provide security for the members on the mission, their premises and their property while on the mission even when there is a conflict in the receiving state, and also provide for their leave of the country in the earliest when there is a conflict in the receiving state- Articles 22(2), 44, 45(a).

d) Receiving state is to exempt members on mission of sender state from all taxes, dues, income duties and others- Articles 23(1), 34, 36(1)(2)

e) The sender state shall be granted a free communication by the receiver state- Article 27(1)

f) A member of a mission can only be tried by the laws of the sending state and also in the sending state for his actions in the receiving state during official duties. Note, he can not be tried in a receiving state unless his actions were outside his official function- Article 31(1)(2)(3)(a)(b)(c)

With the Ghana-USA Defense Co-operation Agreement, 2018 as compared to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, the diplomatic mission here is a military one. The sender state is the United States of America (USA) and the receiver state is Ghana. The mission is supposed to involve both military and civilian personnels.

Since Ghana and USA are both signatories under the Vienna Diplomatic convention, 1961, the laws under the convention applies to both, a reason pointing to why the 1998, 2000, 2012, 2015 and 2018 agreements all have some similarities especially at portions which touches on tax, entry and exit of receiver state, facilities and areas for mission, protection and inspection, and others.

More over, I will continue with a further straightening of misinformations circulating with respect to this Ghana-USA Defense Co-operation Agreement, 2018 with some Articles under its Agreement. Note, all Articles I will state under this section are that of the Ghana-USA Defense Co-operation Agreement, 2018 unless otherwise stated.

A) The military personnels can posses and carry arms in Ghana only under order in consultation with the authorities of Ghana- Article 3(2)

i) This is contrary to the misinformation that they can carry arms around Ghana as and when they wish.

B) Both Civilian personnels (passport) and Military personnels (identity card) part of the mission will need official travel orders before they can enter and exit Ghana- Article 4

i) This is contrary to the misinformation that any USA military and citizen can enter and exit Ghana without any official travel documents.

C) Cost of construction and maintenance of facilities and areas to be used by the USA in Ghana shall be bore by the USA. Again, Ghana will be compensated by the USA for any improvement and construction of any facility or area given to the USA- Articles 5(5), 6(1)(2)

i) This is contrary to the misinformation that Ghana will bore all cost of the facilities and areas given to the USA.

D) Inspections of the facilities solely used by the USA and those jointly used by Ghana and USA will from time to time be done by a joint team of Ghana and USA authorities- Articles 5(7)(1)(4), 1(4)

i) This is contrary to the misinformation that Ghana can not inspect the facilities and areas of the mission.

E) Ghana and USA are supposed to provide a joint security for the facilities and areas to be used by the mission- Articles 8, 5(2)

i) This is contrary to the misinformation that Ghana is solely to provide security for the mission.

ii) Moreover, this privilege given to USA as the sender state is in line with Articles 22(2), 44, 45(a) of the Vienna Diplomatic Convention, 1961.

F) All facilities built by the USA while on the mission in Ghana which are non-movable remain or become a property of Ghana after the whole program- Article 6(1)(2)

G) Claims or compensations for a third party for a damage or loss caused by a personnel part of the mission will be resolved by the USA government in accordance with the USA laws and regulations- Article 15(2)(1)

i) This is contrary to the misinformation that the USA personnels on the mission will go scot free with any damage or loss or harm they cause to anyone.

ii) Aside that, this Article is in line with the Article 31(1)(2)(3)(a)(b)(c) of the Vienna Diplomatic Convention, 1961.

iii) Moreover, compensation and claims with regards to that of the USA laws are comparatively higher/better than that of Ghana laws so the third party stands to benefit more.

F) The USA shall be exempted from taxes, duties, charges, restriction, inspection- Articles 9(2), 10(1)(2), 11(1)(2)(3)

i) The exemptions and privileges under these Articles given to the USA as the sender state are in line with Articles 23(1), 34, 36(1)(2), 22, 27(3)(4) of the Vienna Diplomatic Convention, 1961, and were also similar under the 1998, 2000 and 2012, 2015 agreements between Ghana and USA.

G) The USA forces on this mission will be given a free radio spectrum by Ghana- Article 14

i) This privilege given to USA as the sender state is in line with Article 27(1) of Vienna Diplomatic Convention, 1961.

H) The purpose of this Ghana-USA Defense Co-operation Agreement, 2018 is basically security and training- Article 2

i) With the increase in the use of Ghana as one of the centers for terrorist recruitment for terrorism agenda by terrorist organizations, and also considering the current occurring terrorist acts in the West African sub region, it makes this agreement very needful.

I) With regards to the duration (termination) of the agreement, the agreement can be terminated by any of the parties with a year's notice to the other party- Article 19(1).

i) This is contrary to the misinformation that there is no duration (termination) to it. This is similar to that of the Regional Training Program, 2012 with the USA which also had its duration (termination) of a three months' notice by any of the parties to the other party. Note the 1998 and 2000 similar Ghana-USA military agreements are still in force- Article 19(3).

Again, a careful read of this enhanced Defence Co-operation Agreement, 2018 shows that it has been perfected in favour of Ghana over the previous agreements signed between USA and Ghana in the areas of compensations, claims, prepositions and storage of materiel/equipments, settlement of disputes and unimpeded access as captured in Articles 15, 6(2), 7, 5, 18 of the Defence Co-operation Agreement, 2018 and as recorded under the Paragraph 6.3 of the Joint committee on Defense and Interior and Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Report, 2018.

Further more, there are other concerns of this Defence Co-operation agreement, 2018 centering on sovereignty, terrorist attraction, a military base setup, promotion of gayism and other bad foreign cultures, of which I want to finally touch on.

A) Sovereignty: Ghana will not lose its sovereignty as a country through this agreement because it is clearly stated in paragraph two (2) of the Defence Co-operation Agreement, 2018 that each party will have its sovereignty fully respected. Secondly, if this agreement can lose Ghana its sovereignty then we should have lost it in the past with the sign of the 1961 Vienna Convention, the 1998, 2000, 2012 and 2015 military agreements and other diplomatic agreements we had signed with numerous countries.

B) Open to terrorist attack: The sign of such similar military agreements in the past by Ghana did/has not opened up the country for terrorist attacks, but it has rather proven the contrary since it has rather made the country a place not good enough for terrorists to satisfy their terrorism appetite.

C) Set up of a Military Base: Paragraph 6.5 of the Joint committee on Defense and Interior and Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Report, 2018 clearly states that there will be no set up of a Military Base in Ghana as per this agreement. Also the USA government through its ambassador clearly clarified through an official press statement that the agreement will not bring about a set up of a Military Base in Ghana. Note, if an establishment of military facilities by foreign countries in Ghana is what constitute a Military Base then Ghana should have had Military Bases since the 1960s with the recent being through that of the 2015 military agreements.

D) Promotion and influx of gayism and other bad foreign cultures: This has the least chance of it happening, and below are my reasons:

i) If the wide view of the audiovisual content of foreign cultures by Ghanaians in and out of Ghana, Ghanaians being residents/immigrants in foreign lands, having of embassies, consulates and diplomats in Ghana and others are not feared that they will drown the good Ghanaian culture and get our land infiltrated with bad foreign cultures, then why should Ghanaians ever fear that a few USA citizens' stay in our country for a mission for a limited time can bring about a promotion and an influx of bad foreign cultures especially when we have had such similar agreements with many foreign countries since the independence of Ghana, with some of the recents being in 2015.

Thank you
Hhhmm, may God be praised always
Nana Kwadwo Akwaa
(NPP Activist, Kwadaso Constituency, Political Pundit)

00233246913905 / 00233209676413
Member, Critical Thinkers International- CTI
Cc:
The Presidency
The Parliament House of Ghana
The Ministry of Defense
The USA Embassy
Civil Society Organisations
The School of Law
Political Science Departments
Citizens of Ghana
Non Citizens of Ghana