Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joly Mélanie on Wednesday in Kigali announced plans for her country’s opening of an embassy and assigning an ambassador in Rwanda.
The announcement was made by Minister Mélanie to the media on her arrival with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who are in the country for the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) taking place this week in Kigali.
“Its a pleasure for me to announce that we will be opening an embassyfor the first time here in Rwanda in Kigali and we will have an ambassador from here in Kigali,” she said.
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joly Mélanie in Kigali
“More than ever, Canada’s voice needs to be heard, we need more boots on the ground,” the Canadian Minister said. She also announced that Canada will be appointing a new ambassador to the African Union based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Canada’s top diplomat justified the move saying that, “This is the first step in making sure that we have a stronger diplomatic presence around the world and we believe that its the best moment to do because global challenges needs to be dealt with global solutions and diplomats needs to be on table negotiating and finding solutions.
Prime Minister Trudeau’s visit to Rwanda is the first high profile Canadian official visit to the country. He arrived at Kigali International Airport on Wednesday evening.
Rwanda and Canada enjoy cordial relations established since 1963, the two countries collaborate on trade and investment, environmental protection, peacekeeping and judicial matters among others. The two also cooperate in multilateral organizations such as the Commonwealth and La Francophonie.
Last week President Paul Kagame tweeted that he had a good telephone conversation with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about bilateral and global issues of common interest.
“I am happy to be welcoming him to #CHOGM2022 next week along with other leaders, and look forward to broadening our discussion and our cooperation.” He said on his tweeter account.
