Mrs Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Foreign Minister
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration-designate, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has asked the Russian government to consider offering short courses in Russian language training to officers of the Ministry in order to facilitate interactions between Ghana and Russian Foreign ministries.
In her view, this has become necessary because of the potential for cooperation between Russian diplomatic training institutions and the Ministry’s Foreign Service Institute, which is nearing completion.
Ms Botchwey made the call during a bilateral meeting with Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov.
The Minister-designate expressed concern that in recent years the Scholarship Secretariat of Ghana and the Russian Mission have had some differences in the award of scholarships, and called for a speedy resolution of the difficulties.
It is in this direction that she requested that Russia increases the number of scholarships provided yearly to about 100 to consolidate the enduring friendship between the two countries.
“Russia’s awards of scholarships to many Ghanaian students over the years to study in Russia have produced essential human resource capacity to facilitate development of the country,” the Foreign Minister indicated.
Bilateral relations
On bilateral relations between both countries, Ms Botchwey informed the Russian envoy that Ghana is earnestly preparing to host the Fourth Session of the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation this year, having received suggestions from Russia regarding the April meeting to discuss the outcome of the 3rd Session and the holding of the 4th Session in October 2021.
She briefed Mr Bogdanov on Ghana’s priority areas as Chair of the ECOWAS and outlined achievements of President Nana Akufo-Addo since he assumed the position of Chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government.
“I hope that Ghana and Russia will continue to collaborate and exchange views on international issues, with a view to contributing towards the maintenance of international peace and security,” she said.
Also, the Foreign Minister-designate requested the support of Russia for Ghana’s bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the period of 2022 to 2023 as well as its candidature for membership of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs for the 2022 to 2025 period and the membership of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2022 to 2027.
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