Republic of Chile to establish Embassy in Ghana

The government of the Republic of Chile is to formally establish a diplomatic mission in Ghana after decades of good relations between both countries.

This was announced at a luncheon held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in honour of the Vice Foreign Minister of Chile currently in Ghana on a working visit.

Ambassador Chris Kpodo, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister said the establishment of a Chilean embassy in Ghana was very significant and welcomed it because it would take the already existing good relations between Ghana and Chile to a higher level.

He added that the embassy in Ghana would give both countries an opportunity to relate more closely as well as promote economic activities between them.

“Latin America is far away from us but it shouldn’t be far, with the Chilean embassy coming to Ghana, we are getting closer and we’re giving more meaning to the south-south cooperation that we all cherish”.

“Although Ghana and Chile has very good relations, it had unfortunately not translated into concrete cooperation and collaboration and the visit of my colleague indicates the renewal of the commitment to develop these relations to our mutual benefit” he stated.

He noted that they had earlier looked at where both countries had come from, where they were today and where they wanted to go and identified areas where they could collaborate closely to their mutual benefit. Adding that they were both convinced that “diplomatic and political relations was meaningless if they could not demonstrate concretely what resolves they shared”.

Ambassador Kpodo said both ministries were determined not only to work together to promote good relations between their respective countries but also to create a partnership to develop cooperation in areas that were very specific and concrete.

He said the two countries would be collaborating in areas including trade, investment, oil and gas and mining; adding that the collaboration in trade would not only focus on promoting imports and exports between both countries but also on knowledge sharing and transfer of technology so as to add value to Ghanaian products.

Mr. Fernando Schmidt Ariztia, Chilean Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs said, “We are fully convinced that there is space for creating new frontiers in our diplomatic relations.

“Chile has the necessity to reach the African continent, during the last years we haven’t been able to strengthen trade relations as other countries in Latin America had. We need to overcome this situation” he stated.

Mr. Ariztia explained that the establishment of the embassy was relevant at this time because Chile needed to have a more consistent Africa policy from both the political and economic points of view.

“Africa and Ghana in general is very important to us as we can provide opportunities for Ghana as well. Chile has the broadest networks of free trade agreements and it is perfectly possible that Ghanaian products can reach Asian markets through Chile; it is possible to forge partnerships in the area of mining, energy and other areas.”

He said currently, Chile had embassies in Kenya and South Africa.

He noted that the visit was the first time since the establishment of diplomatic relations with Ghana that a Chilean high official was visiting Ghana.**