President Kagame and President Macron in a conversation. Photos/Urugwiro Village.
President Paul Kagame and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron held a tête-à-tête meeting with President Macron over dinner at the French Presidency, l’Elysée, where they discussed a wide range of issues.
The Head of State met the French leader at a dinner following a session of the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation at Quai d’Orsay, hosted by the G
where he will deliver remarks during the opening session of the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation, hosted by GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, in partnership with France and the African Union (AU).
During the session, President Kagame made a case for Africa, calling for new initiatives to produce vaccines on the continent, to ensure that the continent is ready and equipped to avert future pandemics, drawing lessons from the obstacles the continent faced to access vaccines during the Covid-19 outbreak.
As a continent, recent global shocks have taught us many lessons. Perhaps the most important is to take ownership of our future, and our health. That is the shared commitment which is advanced by today’s gathering.”
He called on African countries to take advantage of new technologies and innovations to drive the agenda and ensure that the Covid-19 experience is not repeated in future.
“The more ambitious objective we should aim for is to create new vaccines and therapies that target Africa’s disease burden, using the latest technology platforms. Almost all new vaccine and drug discovery is taking place using these platforms, increasingly with artificial intelligence applications. These products should be invented, perfected, and produced in Africa, in an affordable manner, working with our global partners,” President Kagame said.
“This goal should call us to action. Gavi’s model has already saved millions of lives, but there is more work to do. Rwanda strongly supports Gavi’s replenishment process, as well as full funding of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, and we will do our part,” he added.
President Kagame made a case for Africa on access to vaccines.
On his part, President Macron called on countries and global institutions to join forces and support this initiative, pointing out that those who think that providing the means to support Africa is superfluous should focus on the global benefits that would come from Africa being self-sufficient.
Still in Paris, President Kagame, who is schedule to kick off electoral campaigns this Saturday, held a series of important sideline meetings, including with Jutta Urpilainen, EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, with whom he discussed ways to further strengthen the existing cooperation between Rwanda and the EU, including the partnership for closer integration of raw materials value chains.
President Kagame and Jutta Urpilainen held talks.
They also shared views on global issues, including the need for a new paradigm of partnerships that prioritize strategic autonomy and mutually beneficial collaboration.
President Kagame also met with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye of Senegal and they had a cordial exchange following up on President Kagame’s visit to Dakar last month.
The Office of the President said they also exchanged on a visit of President Faye to Rwanda to continue sharing experiences in various fields including impactful and accountable public governance as well as intra-African collaboration
President Kagame held talks with President Diomaye Faye of Senegal.
