Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo, has stated that the Russia invasion of Ukraine is affecting the African and Asian continents adversely and that whatever the developed world and global players can do to end the war ought to be done forthwith.
Addressing attendees of the launch of the Asia Society Forum in Paris, France today 13 October 2022, on the theme, ‘To Act in Troubled Times: New Perspectives from France, Asia, Africa and the World’, President Akufo-Addo said the war, which threatens to spread, is already a global conflict that is bringing to the brink of breakdown the international order inherited from the second world war and the fall of communism.
“What could be the prospects for development in a destroyed world? We must collectively think about the post-war period and even if some will find it premature, think about reconciliation.
“Europe as a gateway to Africa and Asia have for decades projected an image of stability and prosperity. Today, it is returning to its old demons by becoming one of the most unstable areas in the world,” President Akufo-Addo said.
“This instability, fundamentally compromises the development prospects of both Africa and Asia, for both need the stable, prosperous and support of Europe capable of playing its full role as a responsible partner.
We Africans and our fellow Asians have a common interest in ensuring that what is primarily a European crisis is resolved as soon as possible,” the President added.
Ghana’s position on Russia’s war
According to President Akufo-Addo, “A stable world is a world without winners or losers. It is a world that respects international law. It is a world of equity where the strongest do not crush the weakest.”
To this end, he repeated Ghana’s position on Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine, which is that, she condemns the war in no uncertain terms and demands that Russia puts a stop to the war and withdraw her troops from Ukraine immediately.
“I have lived long enough to know that any victory won through injustice, imposed not through fairness but through violence and coercion is a victory in the form of defeat for the victor, for the vanquished, for global security, for humanity.
“That is why I repeat, whatever the fate of the arms, Ghana, my country, beacon of democracy and stability in contemporary Africa, vigorously condemns Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, a sovereign country,” President Akufo-Addo stated.
Dialogue and negotiations
In his address, the Ghanaian president indicated that the surest way to guarantee world peace will be to use dialogue and negotiations to settle disputes that may arise between nation states and not through the means of war.
“Ghana, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain her freedom and independence from colonial bondage, in her case, British colonial rule, has been consistently committed to a vision of the world, free from hegemonic practices in which all nations, great or small, live in peaceful co-existence in conditions of equity, mutual respect and where differences in the international arena are settled by dialogue and negotiations and not by force and violence,” President Akufo-Addo noted.
Effects of war on Africa
In an interdependent world as exists currently, President Akufo-Addo said the “consequences of what is happening in Mariupol or in Donbas, affects the lives hundreds and millions” of his fellow Africans.
“Our continent, already sourly hit by the crisis borne out of the COVID pandemic, is suffering a shock of unprecedented violence that is jeopardising the fruits of years of efforts to improve our economies. Worse, Africa is once again becoming a playing field for power rivalries as it was at the height of the Cold War.
“In West Africa, against the background of social crisis, this has resulted in instability, a resurgence of terrorists acts and acceleration of migratory pressures, which I will remind you, are primarily on the African countries themselves, and the questioning of the democratic model,” Akufo-Addo said.
“How can we tackle all these problems at the same time when our continent which is responsible for only a small part of the greenhouse gas emissions is moreover, the one most affected by climate change?
“Today, nothing rules out the possibility of the worst happening. The nuclear threat poses a mortal danger to the whole of creation. I am not afraid to say in this secular country of France, that as a man of faith, I am horrified by the threat of apocalyptic destruction to the whole of creation,” President Akufo-Addo added.
Asia Society
Asia Society is the leading global and Pan-Asian organization working to strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders, and institutions of the United States and Asia.
The organisation seeks to increase knowledge and enhance dialogue, encourage creative expression, and generate new ideas across the fields of policy, business, education, arts, and culture.
Asia Society was founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd. Initially established to promote greater knowledge of Asia in the US, the Society today is a global institution—with offices throughout the US and Asia—that fulfills its educational mandate through a wide range of cross-disciplinary programming.
As economies and cultures have become more interconnected, the Society’s programs have expanded to address Asian American issues, the effects of globalization, and pressing concerns in Asia including human rights, the status of women, and environmental and global health issues such as HIV/AIDS.
In celebration of its 50th anniversary in 2006, Asia Society announced a dramatic expansion of its network that includes the building of major new facilities in Hong Kong and Houston.
