Ghana and Mexico hold bilateral talks in Accra

The Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of Mexico, Ambassador Julian Ventura has pledged his country’s commitment to work together with Ghana to strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Ambassador Julian Ventura is currently in Ghana on a three-day working visit aimed at boosting bilateral relations between the two countries and this is his first official visit to Ghana since President Manuel Lopez Obrador assumed office in 2018.

He said since the swearing of the new government in Mexico in December last year, the government has begun a conscious effort to deepen its bilateral relations with countries in Africa especially Ghana, in terms of trade.

Bilateral Relations

His presence in Ghana is the first high-level visit from a top government official since Ghana and Mexico started diplomatic relations in 1961.

Mr Ventura said Mexico was the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic relations with Ghana in 1961 and had an embassy in Accra from 1965 to 1980 but was closed for some time and reopened in 2014.

Ghana on the other hand, was the first African country to have an embassy in Mexico, which, unfortunately, has now been closed.

Mexico embassy

Mexico’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Ghanaian and Mexican companies had exchanged multiple business trips to explore opportunities and to promote bilateral trade relations.

“South-south cooperation was an important tool today in Mexico-Ghana bilateral relations”, he said.

Foreign trade

For his part, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mr Charles Owiredu said the relationship with Mexico was very strategic as foreign trade makes up 80 per cent of the Mexican economy and that it was expected that the visit would create new trading relationships between the two nations.

According to Mr Owiredu, apart from Brazil, Ghana has no other mission in Latin America and it was the desire of the government of Ghana to have a permanent mission in Mexico so that together with Brazil, they would cater for the whole of South America.

He said Mexico was one of the biggest countries when it comes to tourism and Ghana stands to learn from Mexico as it develops it tourism sites.

Background

Among other things, the visit would serve as an opportunity to reassert the friendship between the two nations, create new private sector links, dialogue on bilateral and global issues, and identify new areas of collaboration.

In recent years, Mexico has received visits from Ghanaian government officials including visits by the Speaker of the Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Ocquaye, the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyeremanten, the CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC), Mr Yofi Grant, as well as private sector representatives.

PHOTO: Mr Charles Owiredu (seated left) and Mr Julian Ventura (seated right) Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico jointly signing a document after the bilateral talks between Ghana and Mexico

PHOTO:  Mr Julian Ventura (seated right) Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico signing a document after the bilateral talks with Mr Charles Owiredu Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

PHOTO: Mr Charles Owiredu (seated left) Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs signing the agreement after the bilateral talks with the visiting Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Mr Julian Ventura.