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In a joint communiqué issued April 13, Brazil and Ghana reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening technical cooperation between the two countries, especially in agriculture, an area in which Brazil has achieved high levels of efficiency and productivity.
The two countries also stressed the usefulness of organizing regular missions by multilateral organizations to Guinea-Bissau, which is near Ghana, to exercise a positive influence on the urgent tasks of building peace and promoting social and economic development in that country, which was the site of a civil war until 1999 and, on top of that, suffered a coup d'état in 2003.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed confidence in the possibility of cooperation between Brazil and Ghana in salt production and processing, A project along these lines will be implemented "in the near future," as soon as Ghana defines its priorities for the sector.
Lula emphasized the growing recognition by Brazilian society of Africa's contribution to the formation of Brazil's national identify and the country's economic, social, and political development.
The President also mentioned that, at the beginning of his term of office, a law was passed making it compulsory to include the teaching of Afro-Brazilian History and Culture in the Brazilian school curriculum.
For his part, the President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor, thanked Lula for the Brazilian government's efforts to enhance bilateral cooperation in the educational sphere through the offer of scholarships to African undergraduates and student exchanges on the post-graduate level.
The two heads of State underlined the importance of the Air Services Agreement that they signed, providing for the creation of an airline route between Brazil and Ghana.
This should contribute to the expansion of tourism and growth in economic and commercial activity between the two countries. They also agreed to adopt a partial elimination of visa requirements for diplomatic, official, and service passports.
The details will be worked out over the next thirty days in an exchange of notes via diplomatic channels.
Lula and Kufuor agreed on the need to reform the United Nations to bring the organization into line with contemporary realities by admitting representatives of developing countries as permanent members of an expanded Security Council.
Regarding Brazil's aspiration for a permanent seat, President Kufuor said that Brazil should be given "due recognition."
Agência Brasil
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