President-elect John Mahama says Ghana has always upheld the one-China policy. 

The President-elect said this when Tong Defa, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, paid a courtesy call on him in Accra to formally congratulate him on his victory in the December 7 polls. 

The One China principle is the position held by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that there is only one sovereign state under the name China, with the PRC serving as the sole legitimate government of that China, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. 

President-elect Mahama told Mr Defa to inform Chinese President Xi Jinping that Ghana’s new incoming administration would continue to believe in the one-China policy and in all the foreign relations issues that they had worked on. 

President-elect Mahama said his administration had a spirit of consultation and that they would continue to consult so that they could have a common position going forward on global issues. 

He reiterated that China’s relationship with Ghana was historical because Ghana was the first of Saharan African countries to establish diplomatic relations with China, which dates to the period of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.  

He noted that afterwards, there were coup d’etats and there was a slight dip in terms of their relationship; saying “But in the last decades, we’ve had very wonderful cooperation with China”.  

“And we hope to continue to keep that up. I met with President Xi when he was Vice President, I was also Vice President. And he invited me twice to China when he was Vice President. And then again, we met in South Africa during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and that was before I left office.” 

President-elect Mahama said since then, the Government of Ghana has continued that relationship.  

“We know the cooperation with Sino-Hydro on the various projects that were being implemented across the country. 

Unfortunately, the debt default has affected Ghana’s credit rating in terms of economy,” he said  

“And so, we’re looking to focus and bring Ghana back up in terms of economic growth, in terms of stabilizing the currency, in terms of bringing down inflation.” 

President-elect Mahama underscored that this was the time Ghana needs to work even closer with its partners, including China. 

“And so as early as possible, once we get the transition out of the way, it is our hope that we’ll be able to constitute a delegation to begin engaging with China on the issues of our technical cooperation and how Ghana can continue to benefit from the FOCAC disbursement and also from the Belt and Road Initiative,” the President-elect said  

On his part, Mr Tong Defa, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, congratulated President-elect Mahama on his victory in the December 7 polls. 

He further noted that China looks forward to strengthening its relationship with Ghana.