From Jamaica, President Kagame headed to Bridgetown, Barbados.
President Kagame on Friday evening concluded his state visit to Jamaica and continued his tour of the Caribbeans to Barbados. In Bridgetown, President Kagame was received at the Grantley Adams International Airport by Jerome Xavier Walcott, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados for an Official Visit.
The Head of State visited the two island nations, both members of The Commonwealth, just about two months to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting scheduled in Kigali this June.
In Bridgetown, President Kagame is expected to hold talks with the Prime Minister, Mia Mottley and other leaders to discuss bilateral cooperation between the two countries and other issues in the interest of the Commonwealth, ahead of CHOGM 2022.
Prior to departing to Barbados, President Kagame joined Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness at the “Think Jamaica 2022” public dialogue where they discussed various topics, including the future of Africa-Caribbean partnerships, to conclude his visit to Jamaica.
At the dialogue, President Kagame said that Rwanda started from scratch in 1994, adding that himself and others who inherited this mess, tried to put together a team of leaders in different sectors to try and resuscitate the public sector and from there, everything else that would follow.
“There is something that will always be helpful, it is to look in the eyes of people and say “You are part of this. It’s a fight, it’s a struggle. It doesn’t matter your background, you have something to offer. There is nobody else who is going to do that for you.”
“It was a complex situation where the whole society had to do soul searching. What is it that we can do? How do we do it? With whom do we do it? And how do we move from this really low point and start bringing normalcy in life of communities,” President Kagame said.
President Kagame and Prime Minister Holness speak at the ‘Think Jamaica 2022’ dialogue.
He pointed out that whatever little resources they had at their disposal, they had to make sure for every dollar they did what it was worth while whoever was doing something, had to feel a sense of accountability.
“You have to do what you’re doing but, in the end, you have to show results,” President Kagame said.
On the Caribbean-Africa cooperation, President Kagame said that both regions of the world have a lot in common, beginning with people.
“There is that deep connection that the geographical distance can’t eliminate. The first thing we have to do is create that environment and possibility for people to travel,”
“We have to deal with visa issues and make sure we create waivers so that we really encourage this connection knowing that we have interest in one another, we can benefit one another.” President Kagame said.
