The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, has said Ghana is calling for peace in Ukraine. Addressing
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, has said Ghana is calling for peace in Ukraine.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Sunday February 27, she said “We have called for peace, we have called and cautioned against the situation and the difficulties it can bring to ordinary citizens of Ukraine and also our own people who are there.
“We were working with the student associations, they were sending us the list of all the students who are there. Let me take this opportunity to say this, many students go outside Ghana to study and they do not even want to be part of any group or any association, or to register with our Missions.
“Any citizen of Ghana who leaves the shores of Ghana must register so that when there is a situation like this immediately, you can be reached and you can be accounted for, unfortunately, they don’t.
“Fortunately, many Ghanaian students in Ukraine are with the associations and NUGS, so we have been able to work with these groups to get them but otherwise, it is difficult. We keep saying this over and over and nobody pays heeds to it.”
Earlier, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations, Harold Adlai Agyeman, reiterated the country’s support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Making a statement at an emergency UN Security Council meeting just before the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, Ambassador Agyeman described the development in Ukraine as troubling.
“The situation has implications not only for Ukraine and its immediate neighbours but also for all our countries,” he stated on Wednesday, February 23.
“Security is indivisible and the insecurity of one is the insecurity of all.”
The emergency meeting came a couple of days after the UN Security Council met on the development in the region on Monday, February 21.
“We note with concern, the risks that an escalation of the situation in Ukraine hold for global peace and security and stress that those that choose the path of conflict rather than peace bear the consequences of their actions,” Ghana’s representative at the UN stated.
“We are concerned by reports of the commencement of hybrid warfare against Ukraine, especially attempts of cyberattacks against some of its critical infrastructure.”
Ambassador Agyeman further urged Russia to reconsider its intentions, urging calm in Ukraine.
“It may be begging the question, but nonetheless worth repeating. Ghana unreservedly stands by the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, a bona fide Member State of the United Nations, whose membership of this Organization provides for her guarantees over her internationally recognized borders, the same borders with which she joined this Organisation.”
Already, world leaders have condemned the move by Russia President Vladimir Putin.
The European Union met on Thursday to decide on the next line of action.
But Ghana urged all “to exercise restraint on the respective unsettled but accepted situations across the globe and to uphold the collective security mechanism established through the Charter of the United Nations”.
“Any differences that may exist in international relations must be adjusted by peaceful and legal means.”
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