President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo left the shores of Ghana yesterday for a ten-day working visit to France, Guyana, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom.
His first port of call will be Brest, France, where, at the invitation of President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, he will participate in the One Ocean Summit to be held today.
Up to 40 world leaders are due to make “ambitious and concrete commitments” towards combating illegal fishing, decarbonizing, shipping and reducing plastic pollution at what is billed as the first high-level summit dedicated to the ocean, according to Jubilee House release.
Thereafter, the President will, at the invitation of President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Dr. Mohamed Irfan Ali, travel to Georgetown, Guyana, to participate as a keynote speaker in the maiden International Energy Conference and Expo by Guyana. The event will be held from Monday 15 to Thursday February 18, 2022. Ghana and Guyana are developing close working relations in the oil and gas sector.
From Guyana, President Akufo-Addo will travel to Marburg, Germany, at the invitation of KENUP Foundation. Together with Presidents Macky Sall and Paul Kagame, of the Republics of Senegal and Rwanda respectively, he will join in the presentation of the BioNtech modular production facility for MRNA vaccines towards a pan-African project for the establishment of a vaccine manufacturing plant in Africa.
President Akufo-Addo will then travel to Paris, France, to meet with President Emmanuel Macron, together with other African Heads of State, on the security situation in the Sahel and Africa, in general, in the evening of February 16, 2022.
He will also participate in a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron and some Heads of State from the ECOWAS region in the morning of February 17 2022, to discuss the security situation in ECOWAS.
After this meeting, he will travel to Brussels, Belgium, to participate in the Africa Union-European Union (AU-EU) Summit, to be held from February 17 to February 18 2022, and then travel to the United Kingdom for a private visit.
The President was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey; the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan Dapaah; the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Kwaku Afriyie; and officials of the Presidency and Foreign Ministry.
President Akufo-Addo will return to Ghana on Sunday, February 20. In his absence, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, shall, in accordance with Article 60(8) of the Constitution, act in his stead.
