The seventh annual Rwanda-Burundi bilateral cooperation talks got underway yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Kigali.

High on the agenda of the Joint Permanent Commission on Cooperation (JPC) talks is education, social affairs, justice, governance and security.

In her opening remarks, the Minister of Foreign, Rosemary Museminali revealed that since the last session in 2006, various joint commissions have been set up, and they achieved much.

"The sub-commissions accomplished a lot and other issues will be addressed during this meeting, and I believe that we will work together in taking a big stride, based on the foundation of good relations between our countries,” Museminali said.

She noted that the meeting had delayed because of other events that preceded it.

Museminali highlighted various shared achievements, and particularly requested that four noteworthy elements be attained.

These include the setting up of a "focused plan of action” to help solve problems in a fast and clear manner.

She also appealed for setting deadlines and identifying people who work on particular joint activities to avoid delays and, she emphasized the importance of spending time on only the most important activities that develop our countries in accordance to national plans.

Her Burundian counterpart Augustin Nsanze noted that the meeting was a good occasion to appraise accomplishments by the previously established joint sub-commissions.
"We shall then make decisions basing on the deliberations and the previous agreements,” said Nsanze.

Nsanze noted that the two countries should put more emphasis on education and research, fighting crime, reducing barriers to trade and promoting health of the population.

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