The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has commissioned a new chancery building for Ghana’s Embassy in Brussels, Belgium.
Speaking at the Commissioning ceremony held virtually on Wednesday, November 18, 2020, the Minister, congratulated the Head of Mission, Amb. Sena Siaw-Boateng, the staff of the Embassy, the Contractor and the supervisors for the successful completion of the project.
According to her, the decision to acquire this Chancery building, in a prime area in Brussels, as opposed to renting it, was informed by a number of important considerations including long-term cost-saving goals and the need to advance Ghana’s interests in Belgium.
She stated that besides the strong bilateral relations between the two countries, Belgium was reputed as the centre of European diplomacy, as it hosts the Headquarters of the European Union; the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States and other international organisations.
“Our presence in Belgium is, therefore, bound to remain a permanent feature of our foreign policy,” she said.
She noted that Ghana’s Embassy in Brussels desperately needed a befitting Chancery to cater for the expansion in staff numbers and to effectively carry out its diplomatic engagements.
“This new Chancery was funded from the US$50 million Société Générale Credit Facility, which was obtained by Government to acquire new properties and to improve existing state-owned properties abroad,” she said.
“The initiative is in furtherance of the grand policy, since independence, to acquire properties abroad for use by our diplomatic Missions, a strategic policy to which the Government of H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo remains deeply committed.”
The investment in the Chancery, she said, also reflected the determination of Government to further strengthen Ghana’s long-standing bilateral relations with the Kingdom of Belgium, which dates back to the 1960s.
“I believe the time has come for Belgium to re-open its Embassy in Accra to further deepen the mutually beneficial relations. Whilst on this subject matter, let me extend gratitude to the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium, through the Representative, who has graciously joined us for this event. We acknowledge the invaluable support and cooperation that the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium continues to extend to our Embassy.”
The future of Ghana-Belgium relations, according to her, should not only be focused on the fact that Belgium is the capital of the European Union but that the two countries should work on forging closer ties and the expansion of cooperation in a number of areas for mutual benefit.
The relations should also be informed by the increasingly strategic importance of Ghana to the rest of the world, she said.
By Melvin Tarlue