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Workshop for Parliamentary Select
Committee on Foreign Affairs opens at Ho
Ho, March 25, Ghanadot/GNA - Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and New
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), last Saturday
said Ghana's election to the Chairmanship of the Africa
Union (AU) reflected the continent's gratitude to her.
He said Ghana had been the continental trail-blazer with the
ability to steer through the current stormy sea of conflicts
and challenges of integration and development.
"That confidence placed huge responsibilities on all
governance institutions in the country including the
Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs to
collaborate to meet the challenges involved, " he added.
Nana Akuffo-Addo, made the observation when addressing the
opening session of a two-day workshop for members of the
Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs at Ho.
The workshop was under the theme "The African Union and the
ECOWAS: Meeting the challenges of Integration".
It was jointly organized by the Committee, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA)
and sponsored by Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
Nana Akuffo-Addo said the necessary internal structures and
areas for continental collaboration were being established
to put President John Agyekum Kufuor on top of events on the
continent especially in seemingly intractable troubled
areas.
These are Somalia, Sudan's Darfur region, the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), La Cote D'Ivoire and Guinea.
He said solutions to these conflicts would not be easy but
what was reassuring was that "President Kufuor has proved
his capacity to be an "honest peace broker, an honest
interlocutor," with his role in bringing peace to Sierra
Leone and Liberia.
Nana Akuffo-Addo said already some signs of positive
developments had began to emerge, such as the recent
Franco-African Summit in France and the involvement of
Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore in resolving the
Cote D'Ivoire problem.
"I am very happy that President Compaore is involved and
President Kufuor intends to work closely with him," he
added.
Nana Akuffo-Addo noted that the situation in Cote D'Ivoire
was not just one of those conflicts because it impinged
directly on the security of Ghana.
He said there was the need to impress on the political
actors in Cote D'Ivoire that failure to implement several
agreements was frustrating the international community.
"We have to ensure that the process started in Ouagadougou
leads to elections, giving the people the right to decide in
free and fair elections the future of that country," he
said.
The Foreign Affairs Minister said President Kufuor would
also explore his personal and working relationship with
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Muammar Al Gaddafi of
Libya to exert their influences in resolving the Darfur
problem.
He said dialogue was necessary "to enable us handle the
Sudanese issue".
On Somalia, Nana Akuffo-Addo said, there was the need to
persuade the political actors to agree to dialogue promptly
for a major result.
He said ECOWAS was fully engaged in Guinea through Former
Nigerian President Ibrahim Babangida and was optimistic the
outcome would give the Guinean Premier a breathing space to
work out something positive.
"If we find a democratic way we would solve the problems,"
the Foreign Minister added.
Ms Kathrin Meissner, Resident Director of Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung (FES) said through the Organization of African
Unity (OAU), the AU, and regional organizations like ECOWAS,
Africa continued to demonstrate her willingness and
readiness to find solutions to her problems.
She said new responsibilities however required new
strategies and that progress towards greater integration
called for the definition of objectives and a common vision.
"Relationship between the regional organizations and AU
should be worked out and co-ordination mechanisms
established," she added.
Ms Meissner explained that it was for such co-ordination
that the workshop was organized to brainstorm on the way
forward for Africa.
She said some of the questions to be examined were "Where
should the AU be heading?", "Is the United States of Africa
a realistic, desirable and achievable vision for the
continent?" "How can Africa best deal with the many security
challenges lying ahead?"
Others were "Where does the AU come in, where ECOWAS and the
other regional organizations come in, how should the
relationship between ECOWAS and the AU best be organized?
And what is Ghana's role in all these?".
Mr K. Adusa Okerchiri, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select
Committee on Foreign Affairs and Mr Yao Gebe, of LECIA, in
their contribution commended the management of FES for its
continued interest in providing the resources and forums for
sharpening the perspectives of members of the Committee.
They contended that perspectives of the members on global
and especially African events were crucial to its role as an
important player in giving impetus to the direction of
Ghana's foreign policy and its implementation.
GNA
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