Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has officially welcomed his visiting Ghanaian counterpart, John Dramani Mahama.
In an official ceremony at Sa’adabad Palace in Tehran on Sunday, national anthems of the two countries were played and the two presidents reviewed the guard of honor.
Mahama arrived in the Iranian capital on Saturday night at the head of a high-ranking politico-economic delegation. The visit is the first by a Ghanaian president to Iran in 37 years.
President Mahama is scheduled to hold talks with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and parliament (Majlis) speaker, Ali Larijani. On Monday, he will also attend a trade and economic meeting of businessmen and enterprises from the two countries.
The Iranian and Ghanaian officials will issue a joint statement and sign documents for cooperation in such sectors as agriculture, oil and energy, legal assistance, renewable energy and cocoa procession.
Mahama's trip comes in a series of visits by world leaders to Tehran after the implementation of Tehran's nuclear agreement, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in July 2015.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany started to implement the JCPOA on January 16.
After the JCPOA went into effect, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the European Union, the Security Council and the US were lifted. Iran, in return, has put some limitations on its nuclear activities.
The nuclear agreement was signed on July 14, 2015, following two and a half years of intensive talks.