IN DEFENCE OF NANA AKUFO ADDO; Over Claims That His Independece Speech was Anti Nkrumah

President Nana Akufo Addo

By Naa Sakwaba Akwa

A Historian at the University of Cape Coast says President Akufo-Addo did not misrepresent Ghana’s history with his independence day speech following accusations from the independence-wining party, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP).

Prof. Kwame Osei Kwarteng said history is written based on perspectives, so it cannot be said that the president erred with his speech.

Speaking on Joy News’ News Analysis programme Newsfile on Saturday he said “ I have had time to listen to the tape and read the speech itself in its form and a careful perusal of the write-up tells me right away that he never distorted any history of Ghana.

“Histories are written from perspectives, so the president sought to – on this occasion, write his speech from nationalist perspective and those people who put up resistance, either cultural, political, social or economic against foreign domination…and that was what he sought to do,”

President Akufo-Addo has come under stern criticism over what has been described as the distortion of the country’s history when he delivered a speech at the 60th Anniversary celebrations earlier this week.

He said the UGCC, forebears of his current party, NPP, “met to demand independence from the British and 70 years after that event, one still marvels at the clarity of thought and the passion that they displayed.”

“Some of the names of that momentous day have survived in our written history and folk memory. Five of them are on our Ghanaian currency: Joseph Boakye Danquah; Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey; William Ofori-Atta; Ebenezer Ako-Adjei; and Edward Akufo-Addo. Kwame Nkrumah, the sixth of the Big Six on the currency, was to join them later,” the President narrated.

The Convention People’s Party (CPP), whose founding father was Kwame Nkrumah took serious exceptions presented by the president.

The party’s cadre Abdul Rauf says the president tweaked Ghana’s history to please his ancestry.

He said “we as a party can see a deliberate attempt by the president not only to minimize the role of Kwame Nkrumah in the independence struggle of the country, but also to take up arms against the history of our country because, for example, as a party, we have argued that it does not take one single individual to win independence for people it must take the effort and sacrifice of people.

“But in line with principles of history, it took one person’s effort to climax several years of the people’s struggle and in the case of Ghana,  Kwame Nkrumah assumed that role and any attempt to minimize or deny Kwame Nkrumah this role is most regrettable,” he added.

But contributing to a discussion on Joy News analysis show News File, Prof. Kwarteng said, as a big believer in Kwame Nkrumah and his ideals, he does not see how the speech distorted Nkrumah's role.

He described, for instance, the president’s claim that the Bond of 1844 marked the beginning of colonization of Ghana as a Eurocentric view.

He said the Europeans who wrote about colonialism and African history say that Ghana’s colonisation started from that time but Afrocentric historians point to 1874 when the British turned their business headquarters at the forts and castles into political headquarters to establish colonies and protectorates.

At that time Ashanti was independent, the northern territories – Gonja and the Dagomba’s – were even under Ashanti dominion and other parts and  it was in 1869 that Ashanti’s made a thrust into what became known as the Klepe  or the Evedome area in the Volta region, he said.

“It was in 1874…after the Segrenty War… when the British sent an expedition to Ashanti and crashed Ashanti and joined Kumasi that  the Gonja’s and Dagomba’s and those in the northern parts of Ghana accepted their independence including those in the Volta region that Ashanti had held over a period of time.

“But we African historians interpret the colonization of Ghana from 1874 that was when the British turned the forts and castles and its immediate hinterlands of her Majesty’s castles into crown colonies and protectorates.”

But even with that it cannot be said that it was deliberate to minimise the role of Kwame Nrkumah, as far as he is concerned, “ it is a Eurocentric point of view, and he is allowed to go that way.”

Editorial

PROFESSOR OSEI KWARTENG’S DEFENCE

Professor Kwame Osei Kwarteng of the University Of Cape Coast claims that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo did not distort the history of Ghana in his Independence Day speech.

Interestingly, the same Professor insists that the President’s rendition of history was Eurocentric and therefore different from history as presented by Africans.

Professor Osei Kwarteng disagrees with the President’s claim that the history of colonialism began in 1844.

He insists that from the African point of view the history of colonialism rather began in 1874 when the British turned their business headquarters at the Forts and Castles into political headquarters to establish colonies and protectorates.

Well, perhaps the problem has to do with what Professor Kwarteng considers as distortion.

As far as we are concerned presenting inaccurate historical facts is a clear distortion.

What a defence from an academic.

Ghana's Criminal Justice System To See Major Reforms - President

Gloria Akufo, Minister of Justice and Attorney General

By Iddi Yire

The Government would consider the introduction of non-custodial sentences that use community service programmes to reform petty, crime offenders.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who announced this, said the reforms would serve the dual purpose of providing the appropriate punishment for an offence, while getting some public good out of the service that would be required of the convict.

"My government will closely consider these, and all the other proposals that have been advocated for years, and fashion out a policy framework that will lead to the complete overhaul and reformation of the criminal justice system of Ghana," President Akufo-Addo stated.

He said the remand prisoner problem, for instance, had bedeviled the administration of justice for far too long, therefore, a decisive action had to be taken to end that vicious cycle once and for all.

President Akufo-Addo made these remarks, in a speech read on his behalf by Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Education Minister, at the opening of a two-day conference of the Faculty of Law of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).

It was organised as part of activities marking Ghana's 60th Independence anniversary on the theme "Ghana @ 60: Evolution of Law, Democratic Governance, Human Rights and Future Prospects".

President Akufo-Addo said: "Another area of our law over which we must all bow our heads in collective shame, is our failure to hold public office holders to account, especially as it relates to corruption".

"Corruption, undoubtedly, therefore, remains the bane of the economic development and progress of our nation." 

The President said the proliferation of corrupt public officials for example, had severely weakened the legitimacy, effectiveness and efficiency of State institutions, and most importantly destroyed the trust relationship that must exist between the government and the people.

"It is not surprising, therefore, that Ghanaians are increasingly distrustful of government and state institutions," he said.

Sadly, President Akufo-Addo noted, corruption was merely categorised as a misdemeanour by virtue of section 239 of the Criminal Offence Act, 1960 (Act 29).

"As I have always noted, and I will reiterate here - public service is just what its name suggests: ‘public service.’ It is, therefore, not a place for one to illegally enrich one's self at the expense of the country, and my government will not tolerate or countenance such criminal conduct from public office holders,” the President said.

He explained that in that regard, the Legislative Reform Agenda of the Government included the amendment of section 239 of Act 29, to make corruption and other related offences a felony, rather than the mere misdemeanour, that it currently was.

He said the seriousness of corruption and its devastating impact on the country, its economy and its future prosperity, also warranted institutional reform in addition to the aforementioned legislative reform if corruption was to be fully eliminated from the national fabric.

He said it was the intention of the Government to establish an Office of The Special Prosecutor (OSP), which would be truly independent, and break the monopoly of the prosecutorial authority currently being exercised by the Attorney-General.

"The OSP will, therefore, be responsible for initiating, investigating and prosecuting cases of, corruption involving public office holders, breaches of the Public Procurement Act, and the Financial Administration Act,” he explained.

"It is my fervent belief that, such a move will play no small part in vigorously fighting corruption; because it is incumbent upon us and imperative that we root out corruption in this country by nipping it in the bud once and for all." 

Professor Abednego Okoe Feehi Amartey, the Vice Chancellor of the UPSA, said the Government's Free Education Scheme, which would start from the 2017/2018 Academic Year was laudable.

He, however, cautioned, saying that: "As operators in the tertiary education sector, we need to be informed of the concomitant increase in access to secondary education due to the free education translating to increased demand for quality tertiary education in our universities within a few years".

"We, as a university, are appealing to government to consider the potential upsurge of demand for quality university education in the foreseeable future and increase financial and technical support to Ghanaian public universities for capacity development in readiness." 

Prof Kwame Frimpong, the Dean, Faculty of Law, UPSA, said over the past 60 years, ‘our shortcomings as a nation, outweigh our achievements;’ and attributed this to indiscipline.

GNA

Tap potentials of Science and Technology - CSIR

Dr Victor Agyeman

Ms Danso /Ms Diesob

Industries have been challenged to take up risk by tapping into the potentials of science and technology to propel the rapid economic growth of the country.

Dr Victor Agyeman, Director General, Council for Scientific and Industry Research (CSIR) noted that technologies were ready for uptake by the private sector and the public for industrial development, adding their application was key in addressing national issues in all sectors of the economy.

He noted that apart from risk, high interest rates and inflation continued to remain a challenge to businesses.

Dr Agyeman who made this known at the Launch of Business Plans of some selected technologies of CSIR in Accra noted that industries “were not prepared to take risk”.

“They are waiting for one person to venture into these technologies and when they thrive, other entities join them.”

According to Dr Agyeman, he was of the belief that business plans developed by the CSIR would serve as “window to unearth the business potential of the developed technologies to the private sector for the greater betterment of Ghana’s socio-economic development.”

However, Dr Agyeman said, the “promotion, uptake and commercialization of these developed technologies have not been encouraging,” noting that “valuable information to unearth their business potential had mainly been confined to the research and academic circles”.

To address the issue, Dr Agyeman said the CSIR under the Ghana Skills and Technology Development Project has established a Technology, Development and Transfer Centre (TDTC) house by CSIR-STEPRI.

He explained that the CSIR-TDTC was aimed at bridging the gap between research and the private sector through an effective technology development and transfer system that could constantly engage private sector on their technology needs.

In this regard, Dr Agyeman said so far about 165 technologies developed in all the CSIR Institutes had been well packaged, profiled and documented adding, we have prepared marketable tools in the form of business plans targeted at some Entrepreneurs in the private sector.

According to him, there were a lot of key innovations which enterprises could make good investments, citing the development of pozzomix cement developed by the Building and Road Research Institute of the CSIR.

Dr Agyeman indicated that out of the 165 technologies developed, the CSIR had selected 10 and put together business plans on them.

The 10 key technologies, he said include, Gas Cabinet Fruit Dryer, Feed Pellet for Grass Cutters, Biogas Technology, Solar Dry Technology, Improved “Akosombo Strain” of Nile Tilapia using cage culture, Oil Palm Mushroom Production.

Others are Mechanized Palm Kernel Separator, Innovative Rain Harvesting Water Technology.

Dr Agyeman debunked assertions that researches conducted by the CSIR were gathering dust and rather suggested the creation of more platforms to promote policies on researches conducted so that these technologies could find their way on the market.

He cited Malaysia and Sri Lanka as some of the countries that had taken up research into Palm and Coconut respectively adding those products were fetching high revenue.

Dr George Essegbey, Director CSIR- Science Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) recounted that the Business Plan was one of the means of reaching out to the public and the private sector while demonstrating to them practically the output of research development.

Dr Essegbey pledged the CSIR’s commitment to contributing to the development of science and technology to promote businesses.

Mr Roland Asare of CSIR said the Business Plan delved into financial analysis, production plan and chat as well as Marketing plan.

According to Mr Asare, the Business Plan would also provide opportunity for the commercialization of CSIR‘s innovations and technologies.

He said technologies developed by the CSIR were paramount in solving challenges of the country.

Mr Kobina Nyanteh, a member of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), was elated with the launch of the CSIR business plan, but said the Association would be relieved if there were low taxes, inflation kept under control and loans availability for members.

Mr Nyanteh lauded CSIR for the various innovations, noting that raw materials exports were leading less value of products.

He called for more collaboration between CSIR and AGI to ensure that more jobs were created in the country.

The CSIR Business Plans were distributed to Universities, the various affiliate of CSIR, the various Ministries and other Institutions.

GNA

WHO Publishes List of Bacteria for Which New Antibiotics Are Needed

By Iddi Yire

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its first ever list of antibiotic-resistant “priority pathogens”-a catalogue of 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.

The list was drawn up in a bid to guide and promote research and development of new antibiotics, as part of WHO’s efforts to address growing global resistance to antimicrobial medicines.

According to the WHO report, the list highlights in particular the threat of gram-negative bacteria that were resistant to multiple antibiotics.

It indicated that the bacteria had built-in abilities to find new ways to resist treatment and could pass along genetic material that allowed other bacteria to become drug-resistant as well.

“This list is a new tool to ensure research and development responds to urgent public health needs,” said Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation.

“Antibiotic resistance is growing, and we are fast running out of treatment options. If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time," she stated.

The WHO list was divided into three categories according to the urgency of need for new antibiotics: critical, high and medium priority.

The report said the most critical group of all includes; multidrug resistant bacteria that pose a particular threat in hospitals, nursing homes, and among patients whose care required devices such as ventilators and blood catheters.

They include Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and various Enterobacteriaceae (including Klebsiella, E. coli, Serratia, and Proteus).

It said they could cause severe and often deadly infections such as bloodstream infections and pneumonia.

It noted that these bacteria had become resistant to a large number of antibiotics, including carbapenems and third generation cephalosporins—the best available antibiotics for treating multi-drug resistant bacteria.

It said the second and third tiers in the list—the high and medium priority categories—contain other increasingly drug-resistant bacteria that cause more common diseases such as gonorrhoea and food poisoning caused by salmonella.

Mr Hermann Gröhe, Federal Minister of Health, Germany said: “We need effective antibiotics for our health systems. We have to take joint action today for a healthier tomorrow. Therefore, we will discuss and bring the attention of the G20 to the fight against antimicrobial resistance."

"WHO’s first global priority pathogen list is an important new tool to secure and guide research and development related to new antibiotics," he added.

The list is intended to spur governments to put in place policies that incentivise basic science and advanced research and development by both publicly funded agencies and the private sector investing in new antibiotic discovery.

The report said tuberculosis—whose resistance to traditional treatment and had been growing in recent years—was not included in the list because it was targeted by other dedicated programmes.

The list was developed in collaboration with the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Tübingen, Germany, using a multi-criteria decision analysis technique vetted by a group of international experts.

GNA

TEN MOST MYSTERIOUS DISEASES

By Natalia Sinitsa

There is a great deal of illnesses, which can be cured easily. However, there is a list of well-known illnesses to which scientists still have not found a clue. They are still incurable.

AIDS

The world learned about acquired immune deficiency syndrome 25 years ago. A quarter of a century has passed but there is still no cure for AIDS. The disease remains one of the world's most brutal killers which claims the largest number of lives in developing states. Chimpanzee suffer from AIDS as well. Moreover, scientists discovered that the disease can transmit from an ape to a human.

Alzheimer's disease

The disease has nothing in common with common forgetfulness. Affecting presumably elderly people, Alzheimer's is a degenerative disorder which manifests differently with every patient. The cause of the disease is still unknown, and the disease still can not be cured.

Common cold

Who would have thought that the nature of the ailment which affects billions of people all over the world every now and then has not been studied thoroughly yet.

Avian flu

Unfortunately, humans are not immune to this strong virus. Medics fear that the strain of the virus may become transmissible among humans as a result of mutations. The virus is extremely dangerous. Lethal outcomes may reach up to 50 percent of cases. 

Pica

This disease is probably the most unusual one on the list. The people having this disorder feel an uncontrollable desire to eat something inedible - dirt, paper, glue, furniture upholstering, soap, lipstick, etc. Pica is considered to be a food disorder rather than a mental condition. Experts believe that the syndrome occurs owing to mineral insufficiency. The cause of the ailment, just as the mechanism of treatment, has not been discovered yet.

Autoimmune illnesses

This generalization unites a whole bouquet of ailments - from weaker immunity to disorders in the functioning of separate organs. The nature of autoimmune ailments is based on reactions of the immune system aimed against own organs or tissues of the body. These are mostly chronic and pain-inflicting diseases. Medics can only ease the symptoms - they can not do anything else.

Schizophrenia

This disease is one of the most mysterious mental disorders. A patient having schizophrenia does not see the difference between reality and fantasy. They may very often suffer from delirium, hallucinations, speech impediments, absence of emotions or, on the contrary, extreme emotionality. There are still no methods to diagnose schizophrenia.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)

This rare brain disorder is also known as mad cow disease. A person may become infected with CJD after he or she eats infected beef. The disease deteriorates the brain cortex and the spinal cord. The disease very often leads to a lethal outcome, which medics cannot prevent. CJD is an extremely rare ailment. It may occur once among one or two million people.

Chronic fatigue disorder

The feeling, which many people have almost every day at work is a disease, which we most often underestimate. The chronic fatigue syndrome is a classic example of distress, the physical symptoms of which can not be explained by modern science. The ailment is presumably diagnosed on the base of patients' complaints.

Morgellons disease

The symptoms of this mysterious ailment remind a scene from a sci-fi thriller. Patients say that they can feel something crawling underneath their skin. The condition is characterized by a range of skin symptoms including crawling, biting, and stinging sensations; finding fibers on or under the skin; and persistent skin lesions (e.g., rashes or sores). Most doctors, including dermatologists and psychiatrists, regard Morgellons as a manifestation of known medical conditions, including delusional parasitosis.

50 Years Ago: Rhodesia

President Robert Mogabe

In the Commons debate on Rhodesia on December 8 last, Harold Wilson said:

'The present situation in Rhodesia faces Britain with the greatest moral issue she has had to face in the post war world.'

On the same day in the House of Lords, Tory Lord Ferrier was assuring the government:

'I and millions like me could never be persuaded to open fire on our kith and kin in Rhodesia.'

In Salisbury, Ian Smith has said all along that he stands for a settled, civilised way of life against barbarism.

In other words, however much both sides may disagree on other matters, they are at one in presenting their struggle with each other as a moral issue.

There is of course nothing new in this, although it is something of a mystery, why politicians think it is always necessary. There is no evidence that working class support for capitalism would decline, if they were told the truth about its power struggles.

Capitalism has many conflicts, all of them basically economic in origin. There is no morality involved in them, no human interests, no distinct division between right and wrong.

Wilson's professed moral indignation against Rhodesia, for example, does not at present extend to South Africa, which has never made any secret of its support for the Smith regime.

The reason for this is plain. South Africa is too valuable a trading partner for Britain's Labour government to want to upset.

The African states in the Commonwealth may protest at this, and they also use moral arguments to support their case.

Behind all this fog of confusion and official lies, the processes of capitalism grind inexorably on. They recognise no morality and the only issue they are interested in is a healthy balance sheet.

(Socialist Standard, January 1967)

Dubious Story of the Murder of Kim Jong-nam

Kim Jong Nam

By Stansfield Smith

In the West, even among people who consider themselves not susceptible to government-corporate media propaganda, any wild story about North Korea can be taken as credible. We should ask ourselves why that is the case, given what we know about the history of government and media fabrications, often related to gaining our acquiescence to a new war.

The corporate media reports North Korean agents murdered Kim Jong Nam with a banned chemical weapon VX. They fail to add that the US government is not a signatory to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. They rarely note the Malaysian police investigating the case have not actually said North Korea is connected to his death.

The story of his death or murder raises a number of serious questions. North Korea says Kim Jong Nam was not murdered, but suffered from heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes, required constant medication, and this caused his death. The North Korean diplomat in Malaysia Ri Tong-il “cited the postmortem examination conducted by Malaysian health authorities, claiming that the postmortem showed Jong-nam died of a heart attack.”

Malaysian authorities conducted two autopsies, the second after the first said to be inconclusive in identifying a cause of death, before announcing well over a week later that VX was involved.

What was going on here? And why weren’t the autopsies made open to others besides Malaysian officials?

Why was the South Korean government the first country to come out quickly after Kim’s February 13 death to blame North Korea for murdering him with the VX nerve weapon – before Malaysia had determined anything? The Malaysian autopsy was not complete until February 23, ten days later.

Why did these two women charged with murder travel several times to South Korea before this attack occurred?

Why was the only North Korean arrested in the case released for lack of evidence?

The two women did not wear gloves, but had the liquid directly on their hands.  “The police said the four North Korean suspects who left the country the day of the killing put the VX liquid on the women’s hands.”They later washed it off.  Why did none of them die or even get sickened by it? No reports say they went to the hospital.

“Malaysian Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu  Khalid said the women knew they were handling poisonous materials during the attack…. leading forensic toxicologists who study murder by poison… question how the two women could walk away unscathed after deploying an agent potent enough to kill Kim Jong Nam before he could even make it to the hospital.”

“Tens of thousands of passengers have passed through the airport since the apparent assassination was carried out. No areas were cordoned off and protective measures were not taken.”

Why, if a highly deadly VX used to kill Kim, did the terminal remain open to thousands of travelers, and not shut down and checked for VX until February 26, 13 days later?

Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said “VX only requires 10 milligrams to be absorbed into the system to be lethal,” yet he added that there have been no reports of anyone else being sickened by the toxin.

DPRK’s Ri Tong-il said in his statement, “How is it possible” the two ladies survived? “How is it possible” no single person in the airport got contaminated? “How is it possible” no nurse, no doctor, no police escorting Kim after the attack were affected?

Why does Malaysia, which acknowledges Kim Jong Nam is Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, make the outrageous demand that Kim’s body won’t be released to North Korea until a close family member provides a sample of their own DNA?

From what we are told, the story does not add up.

Ri Tong-il asked in his same statement “Why is South Korea trying so hard [to blame the DPRK] in this instance? They have a great political crisis inside South Korea [which is quite true] and they need to divert people’s attention,” noting also that the two women involved traveled to South Korea and that South Korea blamed the North for murder by VX the very day it happened.

Stephen Lendman also gives a plausible explanation:

“Here’s what we know. North Korean senior representatives were preparing to come to New York to meet with former US officials, a chance for both sides to discuss differences diplomatically, hopefully leading to direct talks with Trump officials.

The State Department hadn’t yet approved visas, a positive development if arranged.

Reports indicate North Korea very much wanted the meeting to take place. Makes sense. It would indicate a modest thaw in hostile relations, a good thing if anything came of it.

So why would Pyongyang want to kill Kim Jong-nam at this potentially sensitive time, knowing it would be blamed for the incident, talks likely cancelled?

Sure enough, they’re off, Pyongyang accused of killing Kim, even though it seems implausible they planned and carried out the incident, using agents in Malaysia to act as proxies.”

Is possible that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un decided to murder his apolitical brother, chosing to do so by using a banned highly toxic agent in public, under video cameras in a crowded airport of a friendly country? Instead of say, doing it by easier means in the North Korean Embassy’s guesthouse in Kuala Lumpur, where the New York Times said his brother sometimes stayed?

We are not supposed to doubt what we are spoon fed, that Kim Jong Un is some irrational war-mongering madman who has instituted a reign of terror. A safer bet is this is a new attempt to beat the drums of war against North Korea and its allies.
Copyright © Stansfield Smith, Global Research, 2017

Iran’s President Hails Tehran-Hanoi Relations

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has praised his talks with senior Vietnamese officials as successful, saying his visit to Southeast Asian state opens a “new chapter” in Tehran-Hanoi relations.

Rouhani made the remarks at a meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, in Hanoi on Thursday.

The Iranian chief executive said that grounds are prepared for the expansion of ties between the two countries, especially after last year’s nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.

“Private sectors of Iran and Vietnam are interested in broadening relations and on this path, the reinforcement of cooperation especially in the areas of energy, new technologies, banking, agriculture and fishery will be of special attention,” Rouhani said.

He underlined the need for expanding banking ties at the same pace with bilateral political and economic relations.

Rouhani also expressed hope that the 9th Iran-Vietnam Joint Commission, which is expected to be held soon, will pave the way for creating more dynamism in Tehran-Hanoi relations.

He further voiced Tehran’s readiness for enhanced relations in scientific and cultural areas among universities and research centers.

The two countries enjoy common views on many major international and regional issues, Rouhani said, stressing that Iran’s foreign policy is based on independence and non-interference in other countries’ affairs.

The Vietnamese official, for his part, referred to long-standing and good relations with Iran and the capacities for bolstering relations.

He also congratulated Iran on its achievements, especially in the nuclear talks, saying that Hanoi attaches special importance to enhanced ties with Tehran.

Relations should also be developed in educational, scientific and agricultural fields, Trong added.

Economic ties between the two countries is not as deep as the friendship between the two nations and efforts should be made to forge closer ties, he concluded.

Rouhani is on a visit to Vietnam as the first leg of a Southeast Asian tour which will also take him to Malaysia and Thailand.