Ghana and Burkina Faso have signed a defence cooperation agreement aimed at strengthening security and escort on the main trade corridors linking the two countries, the Defence ministries of the two countries announced.
According to official statement, the agreement was signed by the Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Defence, Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, and the Burkinabe Minister of State for Defence and Veterans Affairs, Major General Celestin Simpore.
It stated that the ceremony took place in the presence of several military and diplomatic officials, including the Chief of Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Lieutenant General William Agyapong, and the Ambassador of Burkina Faso to Ghana, David Kabre.
The new cooperation provides in particular for security support and escort operations along cross-border trade routes deemed essential to trade and supplies for the two countries.
For both countries, this system must help secure critical supply routes, protect economic activities and strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of defence.
Burkina Faso depends heavily on road corridors connecting its territory to the ports of coastal states for the delivery of its goods and essential products and Ghana therefore constitutes one of Burkina Faso’s main access routes to regional maritime trade.
Securing these routes therefore represents a major economic challenge, while armed threats and insecurity in certain areas of the Sahel continue to disrupt transport and cross-border trade.
Through this agreement, the two countries intend to strengthen the protection of trade flows and consolidate their security cooperation in a regional context marked by the search for new responses to the challenges affecting transport corridors.
HO/te/fss/gik/APA