President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday welcomed a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine has agreed on.
“We’re happy to note the call for a ceasefire by President Volodymyr Zelensky, 30-day ceasefire. We hope that will open the way for some kind of dialogue to continue to start to see if the issue of Russia and Ukraine can be resolved within that,” President Mahama said this when he received the letters of credence from Madam Laura Ranalli, Ambassador of Italy to Ghana at the Presidency in Accra.
“I mean, a lot of young people have died, and it’s time for the war to stop, and it can only stop if there’s a ceasefire and some kind of dialogue begins, and so that’s our position when it comes to that.”
Other Ambassadors, who were also at the Presidency to present their letters of credence include: Mr Julio Enrique Pujol Torres, Ambassador of Cuba to Ghana, Mrs Musu Jatu Ruhle, Ambassador of Liberia to Ghana, Dr Abdulla Muraid Sulaiman Mohammed Al Mandoos, Ambassador of UAE to Ghana, and Mr Ali Ghomshi, Ambassador of Iran to Ghana.
President Mahama said that West African countries had their own problems in the sub-region with the fight against terrorism.
He said three of Ghana’s neighbours in the Sahelian Region – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger were facing a very difficult struggle with terrorists; stating that they need to see how they could support them because it was not their battle alone.
“Terrorism anywhere in the world is terrorism against all of us, against the whole world, not just the countries in which these terrorists are, and so we’ll work with them to see how we can support them because we are neighbours who are in the same sub-region,” he said.
“And so we have a duty to be able to assist them and also to try and see how we can build a good working relations between the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which has become a reality, and our sub-regional body, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
With regards to the Ghana-Italy relations, President Mahama said Italy, Ghana’s bilateral relations were good, and that they want to move them to the next level.
“Our relations have been historical, and Ghanaians have a very high regard for our cooperation with Italy,” President Mahama said.
On energy, President Mahama said, he had held a meeting in Accra with Mr Claudio Descalzi, the Chief Executive Officer of Eni, an Italian multinational energy company.
“We had very good discussions. There were some issues that they had during the previous administration. Happily, we’ve been able to resolve them, and so he indicated that they were willing to go ahead with their investment in Ghana,” the President said.
“We have had a good partnership with them, and currently almost 60 per cent of our total gas supply for power generation is coming from ENI, and they have the possibility of ramping that up with the other compartments that we gave them.”
He said they were in a good place, and that they appreciate the cooperation that they were having with ENI in that regard.
He said there were more prospects for partnership between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and ENI and any other organizations that were interested in the upstream oil and gas industry, and so that they would work together on that.
On her part, Madam Laura Ranalli, Ambassador of Italy to Ghana, congratulated President Mahama on his decisive victory in the December 7 general election.
She said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy had also welcomed the ceasefire announcement by President Zelensky, and that they were all waiting for the next move.
Concerning Eni, Madam Ronalli said the strengthening of the cooperation between the Ghana Government and Eni, had been welcomed in Italy with great interest, since they open up new opportunities for investment and development.
“With regard to agriculture, Bonifiche Ferraresi, Italy’s largest company in the sector has committed to investing in Ghana through the establishment of model farms,” she said.
“These farms are designed to promote regenerative agriculture, develop sustainable, scalable, and innovative agroindustrial value chains, enhance food security, and foster the education of human capital to generate lasting employment.”
GNA