London: President John Dramani Mahama on day three of his five-day official visit to the United Kingdom engaged Chatham House in London on 'Navigating a Changing Global Order: Ghana's Strategic Priorities'.
According to Ghana News Agency, Chatham House is a world-leading policy institute devoted to addressing geopolitical challenges and international problems. The President in his presentation outlined Ghana's vision for a more equitable, inclusive, and representative international system. He mentioned that for more than a century, Chatham House had shaped critical conversations on international affairs, diplomacy, governance, and the global order. At moments of profound global transition, institutions like Chatham House remain crucial as they provide intellectual space not just to interpret change, but to interrogate its consequences and help shape its direction.
The President reiterated Ghana's support for comprehensive reform of the United Nations system, particularly equitable representation for Africa on the UN Security Council. He described the continent's exclusion from permanent representation as a historical injustice and a structural imbalance that undermines the credibility of the multilateral system.
On health issues, the President highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed a profound inequality within the global system, as access to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and essential medical supplies for many African countries became dependent not on the urgency of need, but on the opposition within the global supply hierarchy. He noted that reliance on external systems had quickly become a national security vulnerability, which spurred Ghana to launch the Accra Reset Initiative-a broader philosophy of climate strategic repositioning.
President Mahama stated that the Accra Reset Initiative advocates strengthening sovereign capacity across public health systems, pharmaceutical manufacturing, vaccine production, digital infrastructure, food security, industrialization, and strategic financing. He underscored that the Accra Reset is not an argument against international cooperation, but a call for a new architecture of partnership grounded in mutual respect, co-creation, equity, and shared responsibility. The future of the multilateral system, he said, could not be built on dependency, but on dignity.
Ghana, he asserted, views African integration not merely as an aspiration but as an economic and geopolitical necessity. In a world characterized by supply chain fragmentation, shifting trade blocs, and rising economic nationalism, Africa must strengthen its internal economic resilience. President Mahama described the African Continental Free Trade Area, headquartered in Accra, as one of the most consequential economic transformation projects of our generation. He stated that successful implementation of the Free Trade Area could unlock intra-Africa trade, expand industrial production, strengthen regional value chains, and reduce Africa's excessive exposure to external shocks.
He emphasized that African economies have remained overly dependent on exporting raw commodities while importing higher-value finished products, a model he deemed neither sustainable nor strategically viable. Consequently, Ghana remains committed to industrial transformation, value addition, export diversification, and regional economic integration.