Cabinet approves Resident Diplomatic Mission in Turkey

Page 16: Daily Graphic, February 29, 2012. Story: Albert K. Salia THE Cabinet has approved the opening of a Resident Diplomatic Mission in Ankara, Turkey and a Consulate General in Guangzhou Province, China. Ghana’s mission in Serbia has also been closed down. These decisions were made following proposals by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration after rationalising, streamlining and generally aligning the ministry’s activities with the national interest. Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, who confirmed these in an interview yesterday, said the object of the rationalisation exercise was to achieve efficiency and effectiveness, value for money in service delivery and was taken in the best interest of the country. Throwing more light on the decisions, Alhaji Mumuni said Ghana-Turkey relations had witnessed remarkable developments since the first summit and the adoption of the Joint Implementation Plan. “Turkey for instance has shown great interest in Ghana, with the opening of a diplomatic mission in Accra in February, 2010 to enhance its relations with our country. Turkey has also established an Honorary Consulate in Kumasi to be in charge of the Northern half of Ghana, a move which has led to the strengthening and expansion of trade and investment relations that will inure to the benefit of our two countries and peoples,” he stated. According to him, the high point of Ghana-Turkish relations was the two-day official visit to Ghana in March, 2011 by the President of Turkey, Mr Abdullah Gul, during which period a number of agreements were signed including a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of a Political Consultation Mechanism between the two foreign ministries; an agreement on bilateral air services, which resulted in Turkish Airlines flying four times a week from Accra to Istanbul, among others. “Undoubtedly, the search for markets and investments has also become so intense that Ghana had to strategically position itself in order to become competitive at the continental and global levels,” he added. He recalled that during the African Union Summit in January, 2008, Turkey was declared as a strategic partner of Africa. Turkey, he explained, followed up by organising the first Turkey-Africa Co-operation Summit in Istanbul, Turkey in August 2008 with the view to giving momentum to the development of Turkish-African relations, as well as expanding and enriching co-operation in various areas of interest and benefit. Alhaji Mumuni noted that during the August, 2008 Summit in which Ghana actively participated, the Istanbul Declaration on Africa-Turkey Partnership was announced with a resolve of the parties to co-operate at both continental and bilateral levels in various critical areas of development. Subsequently, he said, Africa and Turkey adopted the Joint Implementation Plan 2010-2014 in December, 2010, to further strengthen the comprehensive co-operative relations between African countries and Turkey in areas such as Inter-Governmental and Institutional Co-operation, trade and investments, agriculture and agro-business, health, peace and security, infrastructure, energy, transport and tourism, among others. On the decision to establish a Consulate-General in Guangzhou Province, the minister said the presence of a large Ghanaian community in that province was crucial in taking that decision. That, he explained, was because of the inability of the Ghana Mission in Beijing to effectively cover Guangzhou as a result of the distance between the two cities and the cost involved, saying that travelling between Beijing and Guangzhou by train required between 20 and 30 hours. Alhaji Mumuni said in view of the stringent immigration laws in China, Ghanaians in Guangzhou seeking consular services were challenged by cost and frustration resulting in some of them having to be jailed or deported. Besides that, he said, the consulate would also intervene in some of the language challenges Ghanaians faced in that part of China resulting in some of them being duped or spending 20 per cent of their capital on litigation. “It is interesting to note that almost all the Western countries have opened Consulates-General in Guangzhou, while seven African countries — Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Libya, Angola and South Africa — have also established Consulates-General there,” he added. On the closure of the mission in Serbia, Alhaji Mumuni said that decision was also taken after the ministry reviewed its operations in that country. He explained that a similar decision was taken to close Ghana’s mission in Ireland, while a Consulate-General was opened in Dubai. The minister said Ghana’s Ambassador to Serbia was already back home while the staff would be brought back home and put in the general stream for reposting. He said Ghana’s relations with Serbia had always been historical and indicated that nothing would spoil that relationship. As to whether Serbia had a mission in Ghana, Alhaji Mumuni answered in the negative and explained that in spite of that Ghana opened a mission in that country. He said the decision to close it down had nothing to do with bad relations but in line with the ministry’s periodic reviews of its operations across the globe.