Enduring friendship

Formal diplomatic cooperation between the Republic of Rwanda and the People's Republic of China was established in November 1971.

Over the past 50 years, cooperation between the two countries has been comprehensive across all sectors. Political exchanges have taken the lead with leaders of both sides making reciprocal visits, while projects under cooperation agreements are being implemented in various sectors including infrastructure, agriculture, industry, trade, health, education, technology, culture and people-to-people exchanges.

On Nov 12, 2021, President Paul Kagame and President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory letters on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, reiterating the shared desire of the two countries to raise their relationship to even greater heights. Both presidents spoke highly of the strong existing friendship and cooperation between the two countries and their shared intention to deepen the friendship even further in the coming half century of productive cooperation.

In July 2018, President Xi became the first Chinese head of state to visit Rwanda. During that visit the two sides signed 15 bilateral cooperation agreements in a broad range of areas.

In his article published by Rwandan newspaper The New Times, entitled "China and Rwanda: A friendship higher than the mountains", President Xi called the friendship between China and Rwanda "an epitome of the friendship between China and Africa".

The agreements signed during this visit focused on strengthening collaboration and investment in infrastructure, agriculture, e-commerce, law enforcement, human resource development, civil air transport cooperation, geological survey, and visa exemption policy, among others.

In the same year, President Kagame visited China and held a meeting with his counterpart in Beijing on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation further cementing relations. Many other high-level visits have taken place.

Today a number of projects have been completed, and others are ongoing. Throughout this journey of diplomatic relations, especially over the last 27 years, China has become one of the best and most reliable investment and trade partners of Rwanda. Chinese companies continue to invest in Rwanda, while at the same time Rwanda has found valuable market opportunities in China by supplying specialty agricultural commodities such as high-quality chili, tea and coffee.

Rwanda and other African countries are working with China through the FOCAC mechanism to increase investment and exports to achieve shared prosperity. Rwanda has integrated the FOCAC projects, the African Union's Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into its national development agenda through its new Vision 2050 blueprint and midterm National Strategy for Transformation (2017-24) and related strategies. As a country that aspires to rapid economic growth, Rwanda has unveiled the inclusive Vision 2050 development strategy to bring all Rwandans into the country's development journey, while integrating green growth and climate resilience strategies. The country envisages accelerating its growth in order to become an upper-middle-income country by 2035 and a high-income one by 2050.

By strengthening institutional collaboration, Rwanda looks forward to building more partnerships and gaining from China's enormous experience and capacity in fields including poverty alleviation, agriculture, investment, technology and infrastructure.

Rwanda has undertaken extensive reforms to create a business environment conducive to attracting foreign investors. Today, Rwanda is one of the world's fastest growing economies and has an enabling business environment. The country has a growing private sector and large-scale infrastructure projects such as developed industrial parks that can accelerate the growth of investment, especially in manufacturing.

Many Chinese companies and entrepreneurs are investing in Rwanda and China is a huge market for Rwandan products. Rwandan companies have secured rewarding trade deals with Chinese companies during the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo and China International Import Expo. Rwanda's location at the convergence of Eastern and Central African regional blocs presents opportunities for it to become the land bridge in the heart of Africa, through projects such as a standard-gauge railway, which will be linked to the coast thereby contributing to deeper integration of East African economies and beyond.

On the multilateral front, Rwanda and China continue to work together on critical issues related to pandemics, security, trade and climate change.

The joint response of Rwanda and China to the COVID-19 pandemic challenge through mutual support and assistance is bearing fruit. Thanks to effective leadership, strong action and firm commitments in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, both Rwanda and China are among the countries that continue to keep the pandemic under control. The two countries have shown the determination to defeat the pandemic with solidarity and cooperation. As it is doing for many other nations, China is supporting Rwanda in this fight by providing personal protection equipment and Chinese vaccines as well as medical personnel.

Rwanda's ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front, which led the country to its liberation, shares much in common with the Communist Party of China. Both parties have a vision for genuine independence and a commitment to national development of their people. In March 1995, less than a year after the liberation war, then vice-president Kagame made an official visit to China. It was a visit that forged a strong relationship between the two parties. He met with the CPC leadership and exchanged ideas on strengthening party-to-party collaboration. Over the years, Rwanda Patriotic Front senior members as well as CPC senior cadres have exchanged visits and such visits still continue with a view to strengthening the party-to-party relationship.

With regards to people-to-people exchanges, the Confucius Institute and the University of Rwanda have trained at least 5,000 students across Rwanda to learn Chinese, while Chinese universities have introduced Kinyarwanda language course in China.

Hundreds of Rwandan students have been receiving Chinese scholarships to study in Chinese universities every year and more Chinese people have been learning about Rwanda and visiting for tourism and business. This adds new substance to deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries and chart the course for their further relationship.

The friendship between the two countries is built on a very strong foundation of mutual respect and value for human dignity and a shared future for all. It is a friendship that will last.

The author is Rwanda's ambassador to China.