AFRICOM COMMANDER COMMENDS GHANA MILITARY

23/05/2010
Story: Mary Mensah
THE Commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), General William E. Ward has commended Ghana's military for supporting critical peacekeeping operations in Africa and other parts of the world.
Ghana is currently the seventh largest peacekeeping contributing nation and has contributed in bringing peace to the global community.
According to General Ward, Ghana was serving as the host of two major international activities: The African Partnership Station which was going on now and an annual exercise known as Africa Endeavour, which will take place in August this year.
He was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Inspector General’s Conference hosted by AFRICOM at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre at Teshie in Accra.
The purpose of the conference was to share with African military eadership, United States experience in establishing Inspector General (IG) systems as models of defence oversight, and to illustrate how the work of the IG contributes to the defeat of crime and corruption in the military context.
It was attended by representatives from 23 African and European countries and also provided a forum to discuss U.S, Africa and French IG systems.
The Commander indicated that Africa Endeavour was a multinational initiative that encouraged interoperability and information exchanges among African nations.
He said it will also assist the African nations to link their communications network in the deployment planning for regional peace support, peacekeeping, humanitarian, disaster relief operations and enhance and contribute to the work of the African Union to establish Regional African Standby forces.
"It is important to me that our African partners understand our intentions, our intentions are not to create arms of the US military in Ghana or anywhere else in Africa. Our desire is to assist African nations in achieving a more secure and stable environment and do those things they ask of us to achieve their goals", he noted.
On the issue of establishing a base in Africa, General Ward made it clear that the US was not seeking to establish its headquarters or base in Ghana or anywhere else in Africa adding that "my headquarters is in Germany and that is where it will be for the foreseeable future".
General Ward expressed satisfaction at the bilateral relationship between the United States and Ghana and said militaries from the two countries had conducted numerous events and activities through the years.
On his part, the Commandant of the KAIPTC thanked General Ward for his address which will be beneficial to all present.
He said those ideas will advance the course of the various nations in terms of good governance, accountability and professional military conduct.
General Ward later paid a courtesy call on the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Lt Gen Peter Blay at the general headquarters and the Minister of Defence, Lt Gen J. H. Smith to discuss issues relating to regional, military, safety and security, partnerships, peacekeeping, training models and programmes.