The Embassy has also placed Mexico in the view of Ghana as the relevant country in the international arena.

The Mexican Ambassador to Ghana, Madam María de los Angeles Arriola Aguirre, disclosed this in her address at a reception in Accra to mark the celebration of the 209th anniversary of the beginning of the Independence of Mexico.

She observed that since the reopening of the embassy in 2014, very progressive steps had been taken in bilateral relations.

The ambassador noted that economic relations were advancing, and that the Mexican agricultural company, AgroMoneta, had since 2018 been producing a variety of high-quality standard vegetables and fruits in the Volta Region.

In the technical cooperation field, the Nixtamalisation project initiated in 2018 has continued with great success this year, adding that the programme entailed knowledge-transfer of an ancient Mexican technique.

The objective, she explained, was to allow Ghanaians to learn this simple but powerful technique which would have a high impact on food security, improve national health and gender equality projects in Ghana.

Since 2014, she said Ghanaian diplomats had benefited from academic courses on Mexican Foreign Policy and Spanish teaching offered by the diplomatic school of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

She said she was happy to note that students of the University of Ghana had also taken advantage of the government’s scholarship programmes for degrees and specialisation, which had helped bring academic communities even closer.

For the cultural and tourism sectors, she announced that every year the embassy witnessed an increasing number of Ghanaians interested in participating in cultural activities organised by the embassy.

“Today, many people in Ghana know Mexico is one of the countries in the world with more cultural heritage sites declared by UNESCO, as well as its wonderful cuisines and folklore, both also declared as an intangible cultural heritage to humanity by UNESCO,” she stated

Madam Aguirre disclosed that Mexico was the 14th largest economy in the world, the sixth main world tourism destination, with more than 40 million international visitors in 2018 and the first trading country in Latin America.

Mexico is also one of the most open economies in the world, holding the 12th position as the main world exporter.

High-powered visits

The ambassador announced that many high-powered visits had taken place in the past four years, saying that the Minister of Trade and

Industry, Mr Alan Kyerematen, participated as a speaker in the 2017 edition of the Mexican Business Summit, which is the most prestigious business platform in Latin America.

Madam Aguirre noted the visit to Mexico in December last year by a high-powered Ghanaian government delegation, led by Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, that represented Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the inauguration of the current Mexican government led by President Andres Manuel López Obrador.

She said last month, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr Yofi Grant, together with the Ghana-

Mexico Business and Cultural Chamber (GHAMEXCO) and renowned Ghanaian businessmen paid a business exploratory visit to Mexico.

As part of Mexico’s increased bilateral relations, the ambassador observed the first Mexican high-level official visit to Ghana ever since they established diplomatic ties in 1961 by Mexico’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Julian Ventura.

She said Mr Ventura held high-level political consultations with his counterpart Deputy Minister, Mr Charles Owiredu, as well as with the

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, the Minister of Trade and Industry and the Speaker of Parliament.

These crossed high-level visits, she noted, had definitely paved the way for stronger relations between the two countries.

Response

In her response, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Ms Gloria Akuffo, emphasised that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional

Integration was feverishly working towards re-opening its diplomatic mission in Mexico.

She said it was important that Mexico drew on Ghana’s extensive experience in peacekeeping operations in furtherance of which Mexico proposed to collaborate with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeepng Training Centre (KAIPTC) to exchange best practices that would assist

Mexico in its quest to develop a state-of-the-art peacekeeping training centre.

Ms Akuffo mentioned other proposals made by Mexico which included aviation, agriculture and education, as well as an exchange programme for young diplomats which were receiving due consideration from Ghana.