President John Dramani Mahama on Monday held a bilateral meeting with Captain Ibrahim Traoré, Interim Leader of Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou.
The meeting is a continuation of President Mahama’s visit to West African states in pursuit of Ghana’s long-standing foreign policy of good neighbourliness.
Speaking to the press after their closed-door meeting, President Mahama expressed gratitude to President Captain Traoré for attending his inauguration on January 7, in Accra.
The two leaders discussed issues of mutual interest, such as the Issues of the Alliance of Sahel States, a confederation formed between Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso after leaving the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS).
President Mahama had earlier visited his Malian counterpart, President General Assimi Goita in Bamako on Saturday and General Abdourahamane Tchiani, President of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland of Niger in Niamey on Sunday.
He noted that he had got new perspectives about the concerns that the three countries had in respect of their relations with ECOWAS and assured his Burkina Faso counterpart that at the next ECOWAS meeting he would pass on what they had explained to him to the other West African leaders.
“I think there’s a breakdown of trust amongst the leadership. It will take time to rebuild it, but we must 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,” President Mahama said.
Touching on security, President Mahama said quoting an African proverb said: “When your neighbour’s house is on fire you have to help him to quench it otherwise it will spread to your own house”.
He said terrorism started with Mali and had spread gradually into Niger and now into Burkina Faso. “Terrorism is like a cancer. If you don’t fight it together it will spread throughout the body. So how we can collaborate in terms of the fight against terrorism is another issue we discussed.”
He said they also discussed economic relations in respect of trade between their people, free movements of their people between their countries and how they could improve the transit trade through Ghana for Burkina Faso importers, who bring their goods through Ghana to Burkina Faso.
President Mahama said they talked about how they could improve the transit corridor to be able to do that without any disturbance.
He said they also discussed trade between Ghana and Burkina Faso in agricultural products and the exportation of some products from Ghana to Burkina Faso and vice versa.
He said they were also looking at a possible direct flight from Accra to Ouagadougou at least once a day; adding that there was an airline in Ghana that wants to start that flight.
With regards to energy, President Mahama said they discussed how Ghana could increase the supply of power to Burkina Faso and the transit corridor for petroleum products.
He said recently Burkina Faso had bought a storage terminal in Tema; adding that they were looking to see how they could use the pipeline.
“We have a pipeline to Bolgatanga, and we want to extend it to Ouagadougou so that we can push the fuel and diesel products through,” President Mahama said.
GNA
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