The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has congratulated the players in the arbitration of the Ghana Cote D’Ivoire Maritime Border Dispute by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), which ruled in favour of Ghana.

The ITLOS, on Saturday, delimited the maritime border between Ghana and La Cote d’Ivoire.

The NDC applauded the judges of the Special Chamber on their comprehensive and clear analysis of the issues and their fair ruling.

It praised the governments of Ghana and La Cote D’Ivoire for seeing the dispute through peacefully and in a brotherly spirit.

The NDC further congratulated Ghana’s Legal and Technical Team and its support staff for their hard and very impressive work.

The commendation was in a statement signed by Mr Kofi Poturphy, the NDC National Chairman, and copied to the Ghana News Agency.

It said the ruling by the ITLOS also represented a victory for pan-African collaboration, diplomacy, and international rule of law.

“Our two countries have managed a potentially divisive and even explosive dispute with great calm, maturity, and wisdom. We can now put this dispute behind us and look forward to many years of continued collaboration in shipping, fishing, oil and gas and other subsea resource development between our countries,” it said.

The statement said: “We will be remiss if we did not pay tribute to the Late President John Evans Atta Mills who foresaw the danger that a prolonged maritime border dispute posed for the development and security of our two sister countries and West Africa.”

It said Prof. Mills established the permanent Maritime Border Secretariat and tasked the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation to resource it so it could attract and deploy Ghanaian expertise and develop the national strategy for resolving the dispute.

The statement acknowledged former President John Mahama’s courage in launching the ITLOS case despite concerns that this could be misinterpreted by Cote D’Ivoire as a hostile act in addition to perception that Ghana could lose the case.

It said former President Mahama recognized that protracted bilateral negotiations posed greater danger to the bilateral relations between the two countries.

“The NDC is proud to have played a leadership role in securing this legal victory and securing these important resources for the country,” the statement said.