Ten ambassadors presented their credentials to President Paul Kagame on Wednesday, January 29, at the latter’s office in Village Urugwiro in Kacyiru.

In subsequent interviews with the envoys, many of them said their diplomatic engagements will focus on strengthening trade and investment between their countries and Rwanda.

The newly credited envoys are Masahiro Imai of Japan, Riitta Swan of Finland, Glad Chembe Munthali of Malawi, Peter Joseph Francis from Sierra Leone, Zakariaou Adam Maiga of Niger and Zurab Dvalishvili from Georgia.  

Others are Ganou Diaby Kassamba Madina of Burkina Faso, Massimiliano Mazzanti from Italy, Nicolaj Abraham Hejberg Petersen and Martin Klepetko who will be representing Kingdom of Denmark and Czech Republic respectively.

All of them but the Japanese envoys will be based in regional countries, like Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

The new Finnish envoy told the media that her country already has established ties with Rwanda and that most typical issue she would like to strengthen is commerce.

"We will increase commerce with Rwanda in certain sectors for example renewable energy and energy efficiency, education, digitalization and technology,” she said.

As the Japan, the new envoy, who will be resident in Kigali noted that Rwanda and Japan just started their second decade of cooperation and that he is here to improve what has been done during the last ten years.

"Our cooperation should bear another advanced form and as a new envoy, I commit to enhancing trade between two countries by bringing in many Japanese investors,” he pledged.

Rwanda-Japan relations base on different activities through bodies like JICA (Japanese International Coperation Agency) and so far, at least 27 Japanese companies are established in Rwanda, according to the envoy.

"I feel so honored to represent Malawi in Rwanda,” Glad Chembe Munthali told the media.

"My ultimate mission is strengthen the bilateral agreement that already exist between both countries. Malawi has agricultural based economy with high productivity in agriculture. We have a lot to offer Rwanda and vice versa,” he adds.

Zakariaou Adam Maiga who will represent Niger to Rwanda, paid tribute to Rwandans, saying that much has been achieved in the past few years.

"Rwanda is an example of what African countries can achieve. With what has been achieved over the last two decades, we can be sure that with this cooperation, we will see a different Africa in 2060,” he said.

According to the envoy, Rwanda and Niger played an essential roles in rallying other countries African Continental Free Trade Area in 2018, which he said proves the already existing cooperation between both countries, according to the new envoy.

For the Italian envoy, Massimiliano Mazzanti, his focal area to strengthen is the already existing partnership in military and technology.

Currently, there are 33 embassies and high commissions that are resident in Kigali and of these, 16 of the represented countries are African.

Rwanda is also represented in 33 other countries around the world.