President Akufo-Addo presenting a gift to Augustine Da Silva Cunha (left), outgoing Angolan Ambassasdor to Ghana at the Jubilee House.
President Akufo-Addo on Thursday said goodbye to two foreign envoys, namely Augustus Da Silva Cunha and Ron Strickker, of Angola and The Netherlands respectively.
The two had called on the President to inform him about the end of their duty tour of the country.
First was the outgoing Angolan envoy Da Silva Cunha, who spoke highly of the proverbial Ghanaian hospitality, which he said afforded the opportunity to have dinner with the Ashanti King, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, recently.
Whilst he acknowledged the fact that his stay in Ghana was short, Augustus Da Silva Cunha said he contributed to strengthening the relations between the two countries, which led to President Akufo-Addo’s visit to Angola and climaxed with the visit of the Angolan President to Ghana recently.
President Akufo-Addo congratulated him on “a very successful tour of duty,” and reiterated the strong ties that exist between Angola and Ghana.
“These are the things that continue to link Angola and Ghana, and I’m very happy that the visit of the President (João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço) gave us an opportunity to reaffirm these common commitments that we have and also to sign these important agreements we were able to do to encourage a further strengthening of the relationship between our two countries,” he said.
Then came the outgoing Ambassador of The Netherlands, Ron Strickker, who described Ghana as a ‘beloved’ country.
He congratulated the President on his re-election as President of Ghana and Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region and declared The Netherlands’ support for Ghana’s election to the United Nations (UN) Security Council.
“I just want to say that we have appreciated our period in Ghana…our last five years has been very fantastic,” he noted and said collaborations between the two countries in the areas of agriculture, water and sanitation sectors and President Akufo-Addo’s commitment to make Accra the cleanest city in the West African sub-region was commendable.
He commended the government for its handling of the coronavirus (COVID -19) pandemic, which he said has saved a lot of lives, and gave credit to the President for the show of leadership.
He promised to come back to Ghana.
But Ron Strickker said President Akufo-Addo will do them a great deal of favour if he considers a visit to Netherlands on his European tour, saying “we all in The Netherlands view Ghana as a historic friend.”
In congratulating him for his successful duty tour of the country, President Akufo-Addo described the Dutch envoy as one the liveliest members of the diplomatic community in Ghana.
He expressed appreciation to the envoy for his contribution to the development of Ghana.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu