President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will be meeting Togolese authorities to discuss measures to prevent a maritime boundary dispute between the two West African countries, Mohammed Amin Anta, Deputy Minister of Energy, has revealed.
Already Ghana is engaged in a maritime dispute with Ivory Coast at the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Class 91.3FM’s Paa Kwesi Parker-Wilson at the National Policy Summit on Tuesday May 16, Mr Anta revealed that the Togolese authorities had taken steps that could result in another dispute.
He said: “As you know we have some oil blogs that are so close to the Togolese border and in one instance the Togolese authorities stopped the company that is doing the assessment from operating.
“We have written to them to justify why they did that because we think that they (company) were doing it on the boundaries of Ghana.
“We haven’t got the response yet, but we want to be proactive, we don’t want to wait until it escalates to the level that we saw between Ghana and Ivory Coast. This is why the president has decided to embark on a diplomatic mission to dialogue with Togo that if there are issues that need to be addressed, we should address them.
“We don’t want to be going to international courts all the time. We want to have a peaceful coexistence with our neighbours and this is why the president has decided to take that option so that it doesn’t escalate into a situation that could cause boundary problems.”
Meanwhile, the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) will be delivering its judgement on the maritime boundary case between Ghana and the Ivory Coast at the end of September this year.
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