President Paul Kagame on Thursday, June 20, held a tête-à-tête meeting with President Emmanuel Macron over dinner at the Élysée Palace, the official residence of the President of France in Paris.

President Kagame arrived in Paris on Thursday to attend the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation, co-hosted by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in partnership with France and the African Union (AU). At the forum, Kagame said that Africa should be at the forefront of vaccine manufacturing using the latest technologies in order to deal with its disease burden and respond to its healthcare demand.

ALSO READ: Kagame in France for global forum on vaccines

He said the lessons learnt during the Covid-19 pandemic led to important collaborations between Africa and its partners in an effort to gain capabilities to manufacture vaccines and therapeutics as well as boost the continent&039;s pandemic preparedness, including research and development.

"The main purpose of these collaborations is not primarily to produce the vaccines that are currently in use in Africa,” Kagame said.

"That is beneficial but it does not really move the needle in terms of access and health outcomes. 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.”