Rwanda and Cuba want to strengthen their relations for an expanded cooperation which is currently predominated by education and health, The New Times understands.

On Monday, November 20, Cuban Vice President Salvador Valdes, met with President Paul Kagame at Urugwiro village after earlier holding talks with Senate President François Xavier Kalinda.

Cuba is a Caribbean nation in the Americas.

While addressing the media after their meeting, the two officials said they held talks that focused on strengthening the two countries’ bilateral relations.

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Valdes’s two-day official visit to Rwanda is in the context of his current tour of the African continent that began on November 14, with Ghana as the first stop.

Valdes said that he discussed with Kalinda relations between the two countries which have existed for four decades, indicating that their exchanges covered areas including the tasks, functions, and messages of both parliaments.

"I bring a message from the President of the Cuban Parliament, Mr. Esteban Lazo, and from the people of Cuba, the warmest greeting to the Rwandan people, to continue to strengthen relationships between both parliaments and using the best experiences of both countries to win a better future for our people,” he said.

"We have ratified the disposition of Cuba and the Cuban parliament as well to continue developing the solidarity and cooperation with the Rwandan people,” he observed.

Senate President Kalinda said that they discussed the good relations between Rwanda and Cuba, which have existed for about 44 years so far.

He said the Cuban Vice President’s visit was meant to further such relations to expand to other areas which are not covered by the existing cooperation.

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Currently, Kalinda said that the cooperation between the two countries covers mainly the education and health sectors.

"We mainly discussed about how the Parliament of Rwanda can have relations with the Parliament of Cuba,” he said.

It is worth mentioning that earlier on the same day, Valdes visited the Gisozi Genocide Memorial to pay respects to the victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, before meeting the Senate President.

It is expected that he will visit the Campaign against Genocide Museum on November 21 – the same day his visit is expected to conclude.

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Meanwhile, while attending the G77 + China Summit of Heads of State and Government that took place in the Cuban capital Havana, in September, President Paul Kagame, said that he was "very happy” to have been invited to the Summit taking place there.

"For me, coming to Havana, Cuba is something of a great memory because I was in this country in 1986 running into 1987, which is 36 years ago. I was a young officer serving in a country that had given me a home as well, which was Uganda,” Kagame said.

"I was here to do a course that was given to many Africans so I’m very happy that I am back even if it is a very long time, and to attend this time,” he said, after landing in Cuba.

According to South African History Online (SAHO), an independent history education and research institute in South Africa, the revolution in Cuba, culminating in Fidel Castro’s seizure of power in 1959, was from the beginning based on non-racial principles, and revolutionary Cuba was an early opponent of apartheid and racial segregation.

Cuba supported African liberation struggles – to get independence from colonialism, SAHO indicated.

So far, the country’s cooperation with Africa focuses on areas including health.

On January 29, 2020, the African Union and Government of Cuba said that they were in talks to step up postgraduate medical education in Africa.

At that time, Cuba’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, Angel Villa, stated that over 9,000 African students were in Cuba receiving training in various fields of medicine, adding that Cuba was ever willing to share its technical knowledge for the success of the project (postgraduate medical education in Africa).