President meets Burkinabe leader
President John Dramani Mahama yesterday met his Burkinabe counterpart, Captain Ibrahim Traoré.
The visit to Burkina Faso was part of President Mahama’s “good neighbourliness” visits to the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) over the past few days.
Members of the Alliance, comprising of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, broke away from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and are currently under military rule.
The visit to Burkina Faso follows earlier ones to Mali and Niger over the weekend.
Briefing the media after a closed-door meeting with the Burkinabe leader, President Mahama said as Ghana’s northern neighbour it was important to confer to have discussions in matters of mutual interests.
President Mahama said after the meeting with Capt Traore, he has gotten a new perspectives about the concerns of the three countries and why they exited the ECOWAS.
He assured Captain Traoré that at the next ECOWAS meeting he would pass on the explanation to the other leaders on why they exited the regional body and what could be done to remedy the situation.
According to President Mahama, the concerns of the AES states bothered on trust among the leadership in the region; acknowledging that it would take time to rebuild the broken trust.
“We have to work on it so that we restore trust and confidence with each other so that we can work together even if we are not part of the same regional body,” he stated.
On the security front, President Mahama said tackling terrorism which has afflicted the AES states was in Ghana’s interest.
“I’ve said it that terrorism is like a cancer. If you don’t fight together it would spread throughout the body. So how we can collaborate to fight terrorism is another issue we discussed,” he disclosed.
President Mahama said improving economic relations, in the areas of export and import of agricultural produce, electricity, and petroleum products, which has existed between the two countries over the decades was also a major plank of the engagement.
The possibility of direct flight from Accra to Ouagadougou, at least once a day, President Mahama said, was also discussed; revealing that an airline in Ghana was willing and ready to commence that flight arrangement.
BY JULIUS Y
AO PETETSI
