Ayorkor Botchwey engages Caribbean leaders for closer ties with Ghana
Ayorkor Botchwey, Ghana’s Foreign Minister, has embarked on a diplomatic mission to strengthen economic ties with Caribbean nations, participating as a special guest at the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Summit held in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, where the organization is headquartered.
During the summit, Ms. Botchwey engaged in a series of bilateral and multilateral discussions with Caribbean leaders, including Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers from various member states.
Among her engagements, Ms. Botchwey held closed-door meetings with leaders such as Dr. Terrence Drew of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Dickon Mitchell of Grenada, Mr. Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, and Mr. Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica. Additionally, she addressed the CARICOM Council of Ministers in camera and participated in receptions where she interacted with other political, diplomatic, and business figures from the region.
The discussions focused on leveraging the momentum generated by Ghana’s “Year of Return” initiative in 2019 and its subsequent “Beyond the Return” policy, which aimed to increase tourist arrivals from the African diaspora to Ghana.
These initiatives commemorated 400 years since the arrival of the first slaves in the Americas and aimed to encourage African descendants to visit and invest in Ghana, their ancestral homeland.
Ms. Botchwey emphasized the importance of these initiatives in fostering closer ties between the Caribbean and Africa, particularly Ghana.
She highlighted the potential for enlarging the market size of Africa and its diaspora, promoting economic growth, and reuniting people separated by history and geography.
She also advocated for the establishment of a direct air link to boost travel and commerce between the two regions.
In addition to her engagements at the Caricom Summit, Ms. Botchwey met with foreign ministers from other Caribbean nations, including St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, and the Bahamas, to further discussions on enhancing cooperation and economic partnership.
Notably, the African Union has designated the Caribbean as the “sixth region” of Africa, underscoring the commitment to strengthening ties between the two regions.
Ms. Botchwey, a candidate for the position of Commonwealth Secretary-General, aims to promote African leadership within the organization, which will select a new secretary-general in October to succeed Baroness Patricia Scotland.
