“$20million being invested in the Ghanaian Armed Forces in one year is a pretty significant return,” he said.

In a radio interview with Accra based Joy FM on Thursday, Mr Jackson said the US intends to bring in not more than 200 soldiers for each exercise.

“For each exercise we are looking at up to 200 Americans. To my knowledge, we have never brought in more than that and for the time being at the level of operations, we don’t contemplate bringing in more than that. So, this is not an invasion, I want to be clear about that,“ he said.

His comment follows the continued slug over the defence cooperation agreement between Ghana and the United States of America (USA).

While the government of Ghana is justifying the proposed agreement with the USA, the Minority in Parliament has called for the immediate withdrawal of the agreement from Parliament.

According to the Minority, the proposed agreement would denigrate the sovereignty and autonomy of the government and the people of Ghana, as well as the laws of the country.

But defending the move, the US Ambassador said what they are requesting for in terms of access was in relation to “the bases that Government of Ghana makes available to the United States for the exercise.”

“It is not unrestricted access… Just as if you were inviting me into your home and you said that is your bedroom, won’t you want somebody to knock before coming in. That’s my point. When we have people here, we want to ensure that we are cooperating and we working well together, which is also right to privacy,” he added.

Equipment

On the kind of equipment they would be using, he said “What we bring into the country is mostly left here except for basic personal equipment which people travel with all the time.”

“What we take out of the country, the Ghanaian government will know what was brought in and what was going out, its manifested and comes in as diplomatic cargo, there is no secret about it and if there is any secrecy involved, it is because the material is something that the Ghanaian government believes it should be restricted for public good so that our enemies will not know what the capabilities are.”

He said the cooperation was to offer an opportunity for Ghana Armed Forces so that they can learn to work more effectively together and that, “once the exercise is over, the Americans will leave.”

“There is no resistance presence, we have a very small group of military officers at our Embassy in the Defence Attache and Security Cooperation, they are the only US military personnel who are in Ghana on a permanent basis and they are part of our diplomatic mission,” he said.

...more to follow