President Kagame received letters of credence from seven new envoys to Rwanda
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01:22 - Thank you very much.
01:34 Maybe I first I introduce myself.
01:36 My name is Joan Wichman.
01:37 I'm the now ambassador of the Netherlands to Rwanda.
01:40 And I'm very honored to do that.
01:42 I was also very honored to be received by your president,
01:44 which of course is a very important step.
01:47 And everything was very friendly and welcoming.
01:51 And we had a short discussion about our relationship,
01:55 which has gone a long way actually.
01:57 And we have also had a very intense
01:59 cooperation with Rwanda.
02:01 We had a very extensive development program,
02:04 which comes to an end of the end of this year.
02:07 But we have a lot of other funds
02:09 and other ways of cooperating amongst which,
02:12 and we will focus actually on
02:15 green economic cooperation, private sector development,
02:20 and all of this for a sustainable society.
02:22 And I think if you ask me personally,
02:25 I think this fits very well with the transformation agenda
02:28 that Rwanda sees for itself.
02:31 And of course we will still work in traditional sectors
02:34 like agriculture, which is so important
02:36 and where we have a lot of experience
02:39 also here in Rwanda on water,
02:41 but and related issues.
02:43 But for example, also on big infrastructural projects,
02:48 where I think we have started a cooperation already,
02:52 and we will bring in a lot of expertise as well.
02:55 So I think I'm looking forward
02:57 to continuing this relationship.
03:00 And as the president said, let's work together
03:04 and you can always count on me and come to me.
03:07 That's what he said.
03:07 So maybe I'll keep his, him to his word, we'll see.
03:10 When we need each other, we will find each other
03:12 and then, well, I will be here for the next years.
03:15 Looking forward to that.
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03:19 - I just had the honor and privilege
03:29 of presenting my credentials to his excellency,
03:32 President Kagame.
03:34 So I have three main areas that I'd really like to focus on
03:37 and I had an opportunity to cover a bit of this
03:40 with President Kagame just now.
03:43 First and foremost, the United States and Rwanda
03:45 enjoy very strong people to people ties.
03:48 This is a relationship that goes back over 60 years.
03:52 More Americans travel to Rwanda
03:54 than from any other country.
03:56 We have a number of Rwandan students
03:58 who study in the United States
03:59 and Americans who study here.
04:01 So that's an area that I really wanna spend some time
04:04 focusing on.
04:05 Secondly, I would like to work on expanding
04:08 the economic and commercial linkages
04:10 between the United States and Rwanda
04:12 and I think there are some really exciting opportunities
04:14 out there to do just that.
04:16 We have a new American Chamber of Commerce
04:19 that is here in Rwanda that is very active,
04:21 has, I think, very good initiatives
04:23 that they're looking at.
04:24 So I look forward to working with our embassy team
04:27 to support the American Chamber of Commerce.
04:29 And then last but certainly not least,
04:32 as Rwanda's number one developmental partner,
04:35 we look forward to working very closely
04:37 with our partners in the Rwandan government
04:39 to ensure that everything that we're doing
04:41 is fully synced up and fully aligned
04:44 with Rwanda's national strategy for reformation,
04:48 NST1, as well as the NST2 that is underway.
04:51 Rwanda is an extremely important partner
04:54 to the United States.
04:56 I think I just touched on three of the many areas
04:58 where we are working very closely
05:01 with Rwanda and the Rwandan people.
05:03 But there are many more and we don't have time,
05:05 probably, to name all the areas that we're focused on,
05:08 but this is, I think, suffice to say,
05:11 a very important relationship for the United States.
05:13 So we do have a U.S. agency
05:15 for international development office, USAID.
05:19 And through USAID, we have a number of initiatives
05:22 that we're working on in several different areas,
05:24 including but not limited to health, education,
05:28 the environment, economic empowerment,
05:30 and many other areas.
05:31 So it's a very active.
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05:39 - My focus for the bilateral relation
05:42 between Malaysia and Rwanda
05:45 is to increase the level of economic cooperation.
05:50 Because I think this is the most important at the moment.
05:55 Because when, after COVID,
05:58 most of the countries in the world,
06:01 including Malaysia and I believe Rwanda too,
06:04 our economy has to be improved.
06:09 So I think economic cooperation will be my focus
06:14 for our relation between Malaysia and Rwanda.
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06:32 - Well, now that I've presented my credentials
06:36 to His Excellency, the President of this Republic,
06:39 I feel empowered, enabled
06:44 to continue to enhance the excellent relations
06:49 that subsist between our two countries.
06:52 We have excellent relations at several levels.
06:57 We have together a joint permanent commission
07:01 of cooperation, which is an instrument,
07:04 a platform through which we expect
07:08 to coordinate all the activities
07:12 that mutually benefit our peoples,
07:15 the peoples of Rwanda and the peoples of Botswana.
07:19 We have very high impressions of this country.
07:24 There was a landmark visit in 2019
07:30 by His Excellency, the President of this Republic.
07:35 And he left impressions on our people,
07:40 which have not been forgotten
07:43 in terms of his visionary leadership.
07:45 And as you know, Rwanda has traveled
07:51 a wonderful exemplary and is a model
07:55 of leadership through troubled times
07:59 and now has a brilliant, shining future
08:04 for the peoples, not only of Rwanda,
08:07 but an exemplary performance,
08:09 turning from despair to what we now have,
08:14 which is hope and high expectations for prosperity.
08:18 This is a very innovative country
08:22 and you have done so much with the MISE policy
08:28 that is being followed.
08:30 And even at a very ordinary level
08:33 in terms of subsistence farming,
08:36 you are setting wonderful examples
08:40 for the entire African continent
08:44 and all developing countries for that matter,
08:47 where subsistence farming has prospered
08:52 in its own way to enhance food production.
08:57 And this is one of the first in Africa.
09:02 You're also a country where the leadership
09:06 is known for democracy, good governance,
09:11 and planning, planning, which is very important.
09:16 And so you are not only a doer of marvelous things,
09:22 but a pacer to nation.
09:24 We look forward to emulating,
09:28 as well as sharing what we have with you.
09:32 As you know, we're a beef country
09:35 and you are starting up increasing your stock
09:40 and we'll definitely be cooperating in those areas
09:43 in the agricultural field.
09:46 There are many other areas.
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09:51 - I'm honored to have presented the credential cards
09:54 on behalf of the King of Spain
09:59 to President Kagame, Paul Kagame.
10:01 And the meeting has been very pleasant
10:05 and very constructive.
10:07 We summarized the bilateral relations
10:10 between our two countries
10:13 and we acknowledge and we agree
10:16 that we have to do more to improve those good relations
10:21 but that are below its potential.
10:24 So we talked about that purpose,
10:29 improve the economic operation.
10:32 There are some good news regarding that.
10:37 New investment of Spanish government
10:39 in the agriculture sector has been signed a few months ago.
10:46 So there's an irrigation project.
10:51 That will take place in Cayons area
10:56 near Acaguera National Park.
10:59 So very positive and very happy
11:03 to have presented the credentials to President Kagame
11:08 and looking forward to improve the relations
11:10 between our two countries,
11:11 which are already very sound and very good.
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11:21 - Czech Republic, Czechia in short,
11:25 is a mid-sized European country.
11:27 Actually more or less the same size
11:31 in number of population, 10 million people.
11:34 Our partnership with Rwanda dates back to 1994
11:41 to the tragic events.
11:45 Our permanent representative,
11:47 the UN Security Council at that time,
11:49 was the first one to call the tragic events genocide.
11:54 And since then, our partnership has grown stronger
11:59 and stronger and it is based on mutual trust and confidence.
12:05 And I strongly believe that this confidence
12:11 is also reflected in the decision of His Excellency,
12:15 the President and the government of Rwanda
12:18 to open a mission in Prague in our capital.
12:23 It happened this year, earlier this year,
12:27 and we will do our best to bring our partnership
12:32 from strength to strength.
12:37 To name just a few areas of our collaboration,
12:41 it's health sector,
12:45 it's also advanced technologies,
12:50 digitalization, growing engagement in space technologies.
12:56 We are bringing trade missions
13:04 on a regular and frequent basis.
13:08 Just in last month,
13:12 two delegations from Czechia visited Rwanda.
13:17 Yeah.
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