Barbados signs treaty with Ghana

A LANDMARK AGREEMENT was signed between Barbados and the Republic of Ghana yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.

The Ghana-Barbados Cultural Scientific and Technical Co-operation Agreement was signed by Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Dame Billie Miller, and Ghana's High Commissioner to Barbados, Dr Isaac Omane, representing only the third agreement of its kind with an African country. The first was with Nigeria (1978) and the second with Botswana (2005).

"[It] will unlock the potential for greater people-to-people contact and open the door for joint projects and co-operation in the areas of health care, tourism, craft, culture, education, environmental matters, housing, agriculture and rural development," said Dame Billie.

She said Barbados' foreign policy recognised the advancement of more substantial exchanges with African countries, and hoped that the goal was to establish a diplomatic presence on the continent.

Omane said he remembered the West Indian participation in the struggle for Ghana's independence and it was about time a relationship was formed again between the Caribbean and Africa.

He noted 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence, as well as the 200th year of the abolition of slavery.

"All of these dates are important to link all Africans in the diaspora," he said.