President John Dramani Mahama visited his Malian counterpart, President General Assimi Goita, in Bamako on Saturday.
The visit was a continuation of his visits to neighbouring countries to consolidate Ghana’s good neighbourliness policy.
The two leaders took the opportunity to discuss issues of bilateral cooperation, trade and economic cooperation between their two countries.
They also discussed defence cooperation in the light of the fight against terrorism and the departure of three Sahelian countries – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger from the ECOWAS bloc to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Speaking to the press after their meeting, President John Dramani Mahama, who described his visit to Mali as a friendly one, noted that everybody knew the historical relations that existed between Ghana and Mali since the period of their first Presidents: Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Modibo Keita of Mali.
He reiterated that Ghana and Mali had had close relations.
President Mahama expressed gratitude to President Goita for sending Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga to grace his inauguration on January 7 in Accra, which he added was a good sign that Ghanaians appreciated.
“We know that for a very long time our countries trade with each other. Our people travel freely among each other. There is a big Malian population living in Ghana, they are involved in business, they are settled peacefully in Ghana, they are actually citizens of both Ghana and Mali,” President Mahama said.
He said, he and Malian counterpart had had the opportunity to discuss how to make their economic relations stronger.
He said there were transit corridors between Ghana and Mali; stating that a lot of long distance drivers, both Malians and Ghanaians transport goods from ports in Ghana to Mali and from Mali back to Ghana’s ports for export.
He said they also discussed how they could remove the challenges to facilitate the movement of drivers in the countries.
President Mahama said they discussed the strengthening of their defence cooperation in the light of the fight against terrorism and how Ghana could be of help in terms of cooperating with Alliance in terms of fight against terrorism.
This, he said, was because they were all in the same sub-region and terrorism in one country was a threat to all of them.
“And so we had a discussion on how we can strengthen our bilateral relations in terms of the fight against terrorism.”
On the departure of the three Sahelian countries from ECOWAS to form the AES, President Mahama said they recognized that there had been some issues of trust between the two groups (ECOWAS and AES).
“At the same time I think that we have to have mutual respect for each other and I am sure that if we are able to do that we can continue to work together,” President Mahama said.
“And I think that it is choice that Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have made but that wouldn’t be an impediment for us to continue to have our bilateral relations.
“We are brothers, and God put us in this sub-region for a purpose, and so whether we like it or not, we are to live together.”
President Mahama said there was the need to establish a mutual respect between the AES and ECOWAS; saying “And I am sure that if we are able to build on trust, we should be able to work together”.
Among members of President Mahama’s delegation were Mr Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Presidential Spokesman and Minister of State in-charge of Government Communications, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Stan Dogbe, Deputy Chief of Staff at the Presidency in-charge of Operations and Colonel Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, Special Envoy for the Alliance of Sahel States.
GNA
