Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel at WTDC Partner2Connect in Kigali; Credit: Jazmin Campbell

On Tuesday 7 June 2022, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and the Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Franz Fayot, accompanied by an official delegation, representatives of Luxembourg's private sector and members of the press (including Chronicle.lu), continued their diplomatic mission to Africa with an official visit to Kigali in Rwanda.

This working visit, initiated at the invitation of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, marked the first such visit of a Luxembourg Prime Minister to Rwanda.

Background

Rwanda, a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, has a population of about 12.95 million (2020) and an area of 26,338 km2. The country ranks 160th out of 189 in the Human Development Index (HDI – 2020), 49th out of 180 countries in the Transparency International ranking and 38th out of 190 countries in the Doing Business ranking (2020).

Recent visits and meetings between the Luxembourg and Rwandan authorities include a meeting between President Kagame and Prime Minister Bettel on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2019, the first visit of Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta to Luxembourg in April 2021 and bilateral meetings between Minister Fayot and the Rwandan Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance and the Environment, respectively, in October 2021.

Official visit

This official visit was characterised by several high-level meetings. On Tuesday morning, Minister Fayot had two bilateral meetings with Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Vincent Biruta, and the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Uzziel Ndagijimana, respectively. Discussions focused on potential sectors of intervention and areas of renewed cooperation between the two countries.

The Luxembourg delegation then attended the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC), organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and taking place at Kigali Convention Centre from 6 to 16 June 2022.

On this occasion, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and the ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao took part in a bilateral meeting, during which the latter praised Luxembourg's ongoing projects in the area of emergency satellite communication and expressed an interest in strengthening cooperation with the Grand Duchy.

Luxembourg's Prime Minister, in his role as guest speaker, subsequently delivered a speech as part of the Partner2Connect Digital Development Roundtable Opening Session at the WTDC. He highlighted that this was the first time in history that the ITU WTDC was taking place in Africa and added that "it should not be the last". He emphasised the importance of connectivity, referring to the Ukraine war and recalling that "the first thing Ukrainians need in another country [after fleeing] is to be able to stay connected". Besides the opportunities offered by digitalisation, he warned of the dangers of "fake news". The Prime Minister went on to highlight the role played by digitalisation during the COVID-19 pandemic; digital solutions allowed many people to continue working and receiving an education remotely. He also stressed that it was important to ensure that connectivity was not only for people living in cities or young people. He concluded: "Luxembourg believes in the mission of the ITU. Luxembourg supports the political objective of Partner2Connect. We want to become the partner you need to build and enable meaningful connectivity. Here in Rwanda, with its ambitious digital goals, and around the world. We want to share the expertise we have developed in Luxembourg. We want to be a strong partner in your network".

Later that day, the Luxembourg delegation visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a place of remembrance to commemorate the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and paid tribute to the victims. Speaking to Chronicle.lu about his personal impressions of the memorial, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel stated: "I don't want to compare things, but we all have in mind the genocide in Germany and what happened in Poland during the Second World War. [E]ven in the 1990s, we had on another continent a genocide where nearly one million people died in three months, just because they were Tutsi. So, we should not forget that. We always think that we learn from history and we realised that that's not the fact, so we still have to remind, to learn, to teach".

The delegation went on to visit the Irebe Baskets Collective Rwanda, an artisanal women's collective specialising in a variety of handmade colourful baskets and other products.

In the evening, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Minister Fayot met with Rwanda's President Paul Kagame for a working meeting, during which the former invited President Kagame to visit the Grand Duchy in the future. Mr Bettel stated: "Rwanda and Luxembourg have enjoyed excellent relations since the 1960s, which have their roots in the traditional field of development cooperation. Our meeting - and my stay in Kigali in a broader sense - is a good opportunity to give a new impulse to the development of the excellent relations between our countries, notably by focusing on the economic field, ICT and innovative financial sectors. Therefore, we hope to open a new chapter in our relations today".

The official visit to Kigali was also the opportunity for a business networking event, organised by the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT), with the aim of allowing Luxembourg and Rwanda business representatives to connect with one another. Further details will follow in a separate article (see: https://chronicle.lu/category/abroad/41335-luxembourg-rwanda-businesses-explore-trade-opportunities).

Links to Chronicle.lu's reports on the first part of this diplomatic mission (Niger):
(Day One) https://chronicle.lu/category/abroad/41251-niger-visit-day-1-luxembourg-pm-highlights-need-for-development-defence-diplomacy-in-sahel
(Day Two) https://chronicle.lu/category/abroad/41290-niger-visit-day-2-luxembourg-delegation-take-stock-of-development-cooperation-humanitarian-achievements