Baku, September 20, AZERTAC

On September 20, a ceremony was held in Baku to exchange documents signed between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Rwanda, with the participation of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Rwanda Paul Kagame.

Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Rwanda's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in Charge of Regional Cooperation James Kabarebe exchanged the "Air Services Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Republic of Rwanda," the "Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Education between the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Rwanda," and the "Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources of the Republic of Rwanda."

Azerbaijan's Ambassador accredited to Rwanda Ruslan Nasibov and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Development Board Juliana Kangeli Muganza exchanged the "Cooperation Programme for the Implementation of the “Memorandum of Understanding between the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Rwanda Development Board on Cooperation in Establishing Advanced Public Service Delivery Mechanism"” and the "Memorandum of Understanding between the Export and Investment Promotion Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Rwanda Development Board on Behalf of the Government of the Republic of Rwanda."

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Following the exchange ceremony, the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Rwanda made press statements.

Statement by President Ilham Aliyev

- Dear Mr. President,

Dear guests, ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I'd like to express gratitude to Mr. President for visiting Azerbaijan. We met last time in Baku last November at COP 29, and at that time I invited Mr. President to pay an official visit to Azerbaijan. I'm very grateful that he accepted my invitation, and today is an official visit to our country.

I'm sure that this visit will give additional impetus to our bilateral ties. We have already discussed different aspects of our cooperation and expressed the mutual will to deepen and broaden our partnership. Azerbaijan and Rwanda are good partners and friends. We participate jointly in different international institutions and always support each other. During our chairmanship in the Non-Aligned Movement, Rwanda always supported us. They supported us to be elected chair, and then, when our chairmanship was extended for one more year, they also supported us and joined many of our initiatives to strengthen solidarity within the Non-Aligned Movement. Definitely, we always actively cooperate in the United Nations and extend mutual support to each other.

I'm glad that in recent years our relations have become more result-oriented. There have been different delegations from Azerbaijan visiting Rwanda. Last year, the delegation of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation visited Rwanda, and I'm grateful to Mr. President for receiving the Vice President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Leyla Aliyeva. She was very impressed with what she had seen—the large-scale development of the country and also the commitment of the people to statehood, independence, and their independent policy. We are also glad that the Heydar Aliyev Foundation has a chance to support educational programs in your country. By the way, this area, I think, should be one of the priorities in our bilateral relationship. I looked at some information prior to Mr. President's visit and found out that we have only one student from Rwanda studying in Azerbaijan. I think we can jointly work to increase the number of students. It's within the framework of the state scholarship of Azerbaijan. There was a delegation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this year and also a delegation from the ASAN Agency, the public services agency, to Rwanda with respect to established cooperation and maybe to set up something similar to ASAN. I have already discussed it with Mr. President.

He will be visiting one of the public services centers in Azerbaijan and will be very glad if we can provide technical and financial assistance in order to establish this kind of agency in Rwanda. We discussed today opportunities in the energy sector. Both our countries are actively working on that, and also in the area of mining, where there is potential to strengthen our cooperation. We just need to have maybe more regular contacts on different levels and exchanges of business delegations, delegations of different ministries, in order to explore the opportunities of doing business together and also investment opportunities. I expressed our readiness to engage in investment projects in Rwanda, and I'm sure that the visit of Mr. President, our discussions, and the discussion which will follow the press conference will create a very solid platform for partnership in the economic and trade area. We have an excellent political relationship, so we need to have the same level of relationship in all other areas.

Once again, Mr. President, thank you for visiting us. I wish you a pleasant stay.

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Statement by President Paul Kagame

- Thank you, President Aliyev.

I want, first of all, to thank you for the invitation to visit Azerbaijan and for all the activities that have taken place. I appreciate that there are these areas of cooperation the two countries are going to undertake.

There are also many similarities, Mr. President, between Rwanda and Azerbaijan. I think we can build on those similarities and enhance cooperation and development. Thank you for accepting that to happen. We are going to be guided by the many visits, efforts, discussions, and understanding of each other that have already taken place. Thanks to a number of exchanges that have already happened by your government’s officials and our own, who have visited Baku, there has been a lot of learning as to what can be achieved through this cooperation. We want to undertake continued efforts and gain momentum in making sure that these cooperation efforts are productive for all of us. Thank you again for opening up your country for this cooperation, through which you can get support in our own country for developing certain key sector areas, as you mentioned, President, in the petroleum sector and mining. I’m also looking forward to visiting to witness for myself the public delivery service mechanism that Azerbaijan has put in place. We have one that would still benefit greatly from the ASAN model, which I've been told is very impressive, not just by the look of it, but more by what it has achieved and delivered to the people of this country. We want to ensure that we strengthen that.

Last but not least, let me congratulate you, President. I mentioned to you earlier that I saw the development in your country, which is impressive. You have also been pursuing a process of peace that will enhance. I saw the agreement you had in the United States—the peace agreement. In fact, I singled this out because, in the same place, we are pursuing another peace agreement for ourselves between Rwanda and the DRC. You are ahead of us in achieving certain milestones, and I wanted to congratulate you. At the same time, President, just know that you have friends in Africa, in Rwanda, and we want to use this opportunity of cooperation and friendship between you and me and our two countries to move forward quickly in our achievements of prosperity. So, thank you very much once again.