Maritime boundary demarcation not about oil

Page 49: Daily Graphic, April 28, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
GHANA and Cote d’Ivoire have made it clear that the task before their joint ministerial committee on the demarcation of their maritime boundary is not about oil.
The Ivorian Interior Minister, Mr Desire Tagro, made the point in Accra yesterday at the opening of a two-day inter-ministerial discussion aimed at an amicable demarcation of the two countries’ maritime boundary.
“The issue is about the demarcation of maritime boundaries and not oil fields, as has been churned out in media circles,” he said, and appealed to the media to facilitate the process, instead of sensationalising it to destroy the hard- won trust, friendship and brotherliness between the two countries.
Mr Tagro said the friendship and relationship between President John Evans Atta Mills of Ghana and his Ivorian counterpart, President Laurent Gbagbo, had been qualitatively built and had to be guarded because it had become the envy of many countries.
He was hopeful that the negotiations would take place without the media stirring unnecessary passions to destroy the relations between the two countries.
The meeting is expected to develop a road map for the negotiations and also enable Ghana to respond to the Ivorian proposal submitted during the second meeting between the two countries in Ghana in February last year.
Cote d’Ivoire is also expected to respond to proposals made by Ghana, after which the two countries will set an agenda and date for the next meeting.
Ghana’s delegation is led by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and Chairman of the Boundary Commission, Alhaji Collins Dauda, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, as members of the 20-member delegation.
The Ivorian side is led by Mr Tagro and it includes the country’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Mr Augustin Comoe, and the Ivorian Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Auguste Emmanuel Ackah.
Addressing the opening session, Alhaji Dauda noted that the subject for the meeting was a requirement for Ghana and its coastal neighbours to negotiate their maritime boundaries in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
He made it clear that maritime boundaries were required between neighbouring states, just like land boundaries, as they established the limits within which neighbouring states might operate, exercise their jurisdiction and in which they had the right of ownership.
He noted that Ghana and its neighbours had agreed that issues relating to adjacent or opposite boundaries should continue to be discussed in a spirit of co-operation to arrive at definite maritime boundaries delimitation after their respective submissions.
He recalled that the presidents of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire had met at their level and assured each other of co-operation in the boundary delimitation process.
He said it was in the light of that that Ghana had invited Cote d’Ivoire to continue with the process of delimitation of their common maritime boundary after the government had composed a Ghana Boundary Commission to engage its neighbours to continue with the negotiations.
Alhaji Dauda said the cordial relations between the two countries would ensure that the negotiations went on successfully based on the provisions of the UNCLOS.
The Ivorian delegation, led by Mr Tagro, later in the day delivered a special message from the Ivorian Leader, President Gbagbo to President Mills at the Castle, Osu, reports Kweku Tsen.
Interacting with the media after delivering the message, Mr Tagro said President Mills and President Gbagbo were expected to meet at Yamossoukro in Cote d’Ivoire to take a detailed and dispassionate look at the boundary issue between the two countries.
He was accompanied by the Ivorian Minister of Mines, Mr Comoe; Mr Ackah, the Ambassador of Cote d’Ivoire in Ghana, and Mr Madi Buoabre, a member of the Ivorian Parliament.
Mr Tagro said an invitation to that effect had been extended to the Ghanaian President but indicated that the date for the meeting between the two countries to deal with the boundary issue was yet to be determined.
“President Gbagbo has extended an invitation to President Mills for the meeting and the Ghanaian President has to respond to the invitation for the holding of the meeting at his own convenience, considering his tight schedule,” he said.
Mr Tagro said Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire relations dated back to the first Republic under President Nkrumah and for that matter issues which arose between them should be solved amicably.
It would be recalled that President Mills recently swore in the Ghana Boundary Demarcation Commission to oversee the demarcation and delimitation of the country’s land borders and marine positions.
That was after Parliament had passed the Boundary Demarcation Bill which was sent to the House under a Certificate of Urgency by the government.
Welcoming the delegation, President Mills called for the strengthening of Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire relations for the mutual benefit of the two countries.
Commenting on the forthcoming elections in Cote d’Ivoire, President Mills said it was the expectation of the government and people of Ghana that the polls would pass off peacefully.
“The government and people of Ghana stand solidly behind you as you prepare to conduct your elections,” he said. “We know democracy will triumph in Cote d’Ivoire,” he added.
Present at the meeting were the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni and Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, respectively.