Rwanda, Angola to strengthen ties

President Paul Kagame discussing with the Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister Georges Chikoti

 Rwanda and Angola have agreed to strengthen the two countries’ existing bilateral ties as part of efforts in maintaining regional stability.

This was disclosed by the visiting Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister Georges Chikoti, shortly after meeting President Paul Kagame at Village Urugwiro on Wednesday.

Minister Chikoti told Journalists that his visit to Rwanda was part of delivering President José Eduardo dos Santos message to his Rwandan counterpart, as well as discussing with the President how the two countries can further strengthen their existing cooperation.

“This was a very important and very cordial meeting. I came here as an envoy for President Dos Santos who is also at the moment the President of the International Conference on Great Lakes Region, but apart from that, our countries share very good relations.

During our meeting with President Kagame, I delivered to him a message from President Dos Santos and his commitment to work with Rwanda. We also spoke about the region where we looked at the need for stability in our region and contribution that both our countries can make for the process,” he said.

Minister Chikot added that he was impressed by the way President Kagame is committed to the bringing peace in the region, saying stability would be reached if all leaders worked together.

“Naturally President Kagame is a very committed man to peace in this region and we believe that we can only build a strong region if all our heads of state work in a direction of peace as well as in a bilateral or multilateral way.”

Rwanda to Open Embassy in Luanda

Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation, Louise Mushikiwabo said that part of the discussions with her counterpart was to see how Rwanda can also open an Embassy in Angola very soon as part of cementing the two Countries’ cooperation.

Minister Mushikiwabo and her Angolan counterpart

“We will be signing with my colleague and a friend from Angola three agreements on bilateral cooperation on political consultations, and we have already held discussions both in Luanda and here in Kigali on moving fast on a number of bilateral cooperation deals.

In addition to that, as you have heard in recent days, Rwanda will be opening an Embassy in Angola in the next couple of months. As we have been directed by our Presidents to make this cooperation more practical, our two countries are going to make sure that we fend off conflicts but we also more importantly make sure that our region remains stable for a long time,” said Mushikiwabo.

On economic side, Minister Mushikiwabo added that what was discussed include opening up Rwanda Air’s new flight to Luanda in order to boost trade between the two countries.