The 77th UN General Assembly was held in New York from September 20-23, this year.
As a culture, the UN General Assembly meets yearly to discuss, debate, and make recommendations on subjects pertaining to international peace and security, including development, disarmament, human rights, international law, and the peaceful arbitration of disputes between and among nations.
The annual meeting or summit involves a number of activities, where representatives are given the opportunity to present what their countries or blocs have to enhance global peace and security in the ensuing year.
When it was her turn to speak at the Ministerial meeting on Strengthening the Atlantic Cooperation, Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, said the country was ready to work together with countries that share the Atlantic space to ensure that the increasing incidence of piracy, oil theft, trafficking and smuggling of drugs, arms and people, as well as unlawful dumping of hazardous waste in the sea was reduced to the barest minimum.
This assurance followed a move by the US to lead an initiative of 18 countries, including Ghana, Senegal, Britain, Canada, Spain, and Norway, to step up cooperation on the Atlantic Ocean.
However, while lauding the initiative, Ms Ayorkor Botchwey did not leave the world in doubt about the fears on the oceans or seas by saying that, “coastlines and territorial waters are equally fraught with all manner of dangers and insecurity that threaten the peace, stability, progress and prosperity of our countries.”
Even though the country’s foreign minister did not make mention of the Russian-Ukraine war, the Ghanaian Times believes that the mention of the Atlantic Ocean and all the activities that take place on it and related security cannot leave out Russia and Ukraine.
At least for their locations, Russia and Ukraine are among the countries that border the Black Sea, a marginal Mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean.
What this means is that should the war between Russian and Ukraine take twist to involve the use of the Atlantic Ocean, the whole world stands to suffer.
Already, the war has threatened and continues to threaten global food security, so the situation would be worse if marine resources and seafaring are also jeopardised.
On September 20, 2022, EU Council’s President Charles Michel co-chaired a summit on global food security together with the United States’ Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the Chairperson of the African Union and President of Senegal, MackySall, and the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez.
The summit agreed that global food crisis was being exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war and that famine was looming in many parts of the world, so the time had come for all nations to translate their political commitments into concrete action.
The Ghanaian Times believes the best global concrete action now is to find the best way to mediate in the Russian-Ukraine war as the two nations have come out as very important in any programme to stem global hunger.
Currently, there are fears that if the war escalates, there is the likelihood of the use of nuclear weapon and even the non-experts know the dire consequences of that.
Therefore, let the powers that be move and move fast to end the war and thereby forestall the unimaginable, not only with regard to food crisis but also anything worse than that.
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