VILLAGE URUGWIRO   - United States Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Ambassador Jonnie Carson, yesterday, paid a courtesy call on President Paul Kagame and they held talks that mainly focused on the security situation in the region.

Ambassador Carson who completed a two-day official visit to Rwanda, told reporters after the talks with the President, at Village Urugwiro, that they also discussed the progress Rwanda has made in the last 17 years and the country’s peacekeeping role in the region, particularly in the Darfur area of the Sudan.

"I had, during the course of this meeting with the President, the opportunity to talk about regional affairs, issues related to peacekeeping in Africa, some of the conflicts that continue to persist in the Horn of Africa and in the Eastern Congo,” Carson said.

"I also applauded the President on his continuing contributions to the peacekeeping efforts in Darfur and Haiti. We also talked about domestic issues here in the country and it was a very good conversation,” he added.

Carson, who said he was delighted to be back in Kigali, observed that the country has developed tremendously.
 
"It has given me an opportunity to renew an old friendship with the President and to see the enormous progress that has been made in this country since the tragic events of 1994.

The government should be complimented and applauded on the work it has done in health, in agriculture, in providing IT services and in the work that it’s doing to improve the schools,” he said.

Carson noted that President Kagame has demonstrated commitment to doing the right thing, as evidenced by the good services provided to the citizens, adding, "US-Rwandan relations are very good and we are just trying to make it better.”

Amb. Carson’s courtesy call comes a day after President Kagame launched the East African Community Command Post Exercise; code named Ushirikiano Imara; which he declared a reflection of the progress the regional bloc has made in the integration process.

The exercises come at a time when the East Africa and Horn region is faced with the problem of piracy on the Indian Ocean waters off the East African coastline and the threat of the rag tag Al Shabaab militia in lawless Somalia.

Also posing a threat to regional security are the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) and the Front Nationale Pour la Liberation (FNL) in Burundi.
 
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mary Baine, said that Ambassador Carson came to Rwanda to discuss US-Rwanda relations as well as issues in the region.

"He had a very good discussion relating to Rwanda and the US, as well as regional politics and Rwanda’s role especially in the peacekeeping area. So his visit was really aimed at cementing the relations between the two countries,” Baine said.

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