President Kagame was received in China amid pomp and pageantry.
President Paul Kagame on Tuesday arrived in Beijing, China where he joins other African and Chinese leaders for the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit, which kicks of Wednesday in the Asian nation and ends on Friday.
The annual Summit serves as a platform for exchange and cooperation between China and African countries that have diplomatic relations with China.
President Kagame was invited to attend the opening ceremony of the FOCAC Summit, following which he will co-chair a high-level parallel session on state governance. The President, accompanied by a Rwandan delegation, will also hold talks with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China and his delegation.
This year’s FOCAC Summit is held under the theme “Jointly advancing modernization and building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future”.
President Kagame was received by dancers in Beijing.
Rwanda and China’s cooperation is carried out through FOCAC, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the Joint Economic, Technical and Trade Committee (JETTCO). China remains among the top contributors to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country. Since 2019, RDB registered Chinese investments valued at $1.1 billion. The bulk of registered investments are in manufacturing, construction and real estate, as well as mining.
China is currently supporting the upgrade of Masaka District Hospital, which will increase capacity to 837-bed facility and eventually house the Kigali University Teaching Hospital (CHUK).
Since 2000, FOCAC has held three summits at head of state level: 2006 in Beijing, 2015 in Johannesburg, and 2018 in Beijing. The FOCAC Joint Declaration and the Action Plan (2025-2027) will be adopted during this year’s summit opening ceremony.
