Ghana, Ethiopia peace institutions sign agreement

The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), has signed a cooperation agreement with the Ethiopian International Institute for Peace and Development (EIIPD).

The agreement would enable the two institutions to work together and to share their experiences.

Ms Hanna Tetteh, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, initialled for Ghana; whilst Ethiopian Foreign Minister Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus signed for his country, during a visit to the KAIPTC by the Ethiopian Prime Minister of Hailemariam Desalegn.

The agreement was one of the highlights of the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s three-day visit to Ghana, on which he was accompanied by his wife, Roman Tesfaye and other Ethiopian Government officials.

Officials from the Ghanaian side who witnessed the signing of the agreement included Nii Osah Mills, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources; Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts; the Secretary to the President, Mr Kwesi Quartey and the KAIPTC Commandant, Major General Obed Boamah Akwa.

The KAIPTC, established in 2003, is a Centre of Excellence for training, education and research in African peace and security and named after the former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, a native of Ghana and one of Africa’s foremost diplomats.

The cenre was established not only to address Ghana’s needs for training men and women to meet the changing demands of complex and multidimensional peacekeeping activities, but, also to help tackle the peacekeeping training requirements of the West African sub region, and the wider African continent.

On the other hand, the EIIPD, founded in 1996, is the leading institution and centre of excellence for credible research and training on the issues of diplomacy, democracy, peace and development in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa sub-region.

Major General Akwa, said KAIPTC’s vision is to become the leading and preferred international Centre for training, education and research in African peace and security.

He said KAIPTC is privileged to be in partnership with the Ethiopian Peace Centre, whose antecedent dates back to history.

“What an opportunity we have to be associated with the Ethiopian Peace Centre, a nation that is indeed the cradle of Africa’s civilization, peace and stability,” he stated.

“We promise as a Centre to do our best to ensure that this relationship will be a win-win relationship and we will contribute towards the realization of the dreams the founding fathers of our beloved country Ghana and Ethiopia and indeed the entire African continent of Africa,” he added.

Prime Minister Desalegn said Ethiopia had always attached great importance to its relations with Ghana, stating: “We truly value our strong ties.”

“We have of course already established cooperation agreement for air service and Ethiopian Airlines now makes regular flights to Ghana on daily bases.”

He recounted that in the last two years both nations had also signed a general cooperation agreement; an agreement on establishing a joint ministerial commission, an agreement on communication, information and media, as well as culture and tourism.

“Today we signed a momentous agreement aimed at turning our respective peace training centres, in a bid to further strengthen our bilateral relations.”

“Peacekeeping is a particularly relevant subject today. Stability is perhaps the single most important issue in Africa today as it provides the necessary most economic development and democratic principles to take roots,” the Prime Minister added.

He said though much has been done to improve good governance across Africa, there remains a real threat of terrorism and significant threat of instability; citing examples of South Sudan, the Central Africa Republic and Libya.