Ghana, China sign agreement on military supplies

Military Collaboration (Security agencies)
Story: Alice Aryeetey
GHANA and China have signed an agreement for a military collaboration for the supply of military facilities and other equipment to the former to help strengthen its knowledge-based capacity in peace-keeping initiatives.
  Under the partnership, there would be military training exchange programmes between the two countries for the benefit of drawing lessons from their respective sectors for purposes of embarking on peace-keeping programmes.
 Ghana’s Minister of Defence, Lt Gen J.H. Smith, signed on behalf of the Government of Ghana while the General State Counsellor and Minister of National Defence of the People’s Republic of China, Gen Liang Guanglie, initialled for his country.
Gen Guanglie arrived in the country on Tuesday with a 21-member delegation for a three-day official visit. He laid wreaths at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra yesterday in honour of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President.
According to him, there is the need to intensify the existing friendship between the two countries in the areas of  promoting peace and unity for which reason he recommended a collaboration between the defence ministries of the two countries.
Lt. Gen. Smith for his part was optimistic that the visit of his Chinese counterpart which was the first to the country would yield the needed results for their mutual benefit and expressed gratitude to the delegation for the visit.
There was an exchange of gifts by the two ministers after a closed-door bilateral talks on issues of national security. A stool, a piece of Kente, as well as some cocoa products, were presented to Gen Guanglie as a gift. Gen Guanglie in return presented a Chinese artwork to Lt. Gen Smith.
The Chinese delegation later toured the ministry’s museum to explore the tools and some attires used by some past military men, and the pictures of great men and women who fought and stood in for peace to prevail in the country.