As part of the Rwanda – Belgium bilateral relations, a Belgian team is expected to jet in this Thursday to review progress on the decisions by the last Joint Partner Commission (JPC) meeting.

"We have a framework for cooperation which is the Joint Partner Commission," said Ben Rutsinga, the Director of Europe, America, UN and International Organisations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (Minaffet).

"It is through this that we define areas of cooperation and elaborate on the mechanisms of that cooperation," he noted.

Rutsinga further explained that the Belgians’ tour "is about Rwanda and Belgium’s good traditional relations that have been maintained since independence." Belgium was Rwanda’s colonial master and the two countries have maintained close ties ever since the latter’s’ independence in 1962. JPC meetings are held every four years with the last having been held in November 2006. This week’s visit by the Belgians will focus on the 2006 joint commission decisions and will– among other things– look at what has been achieved.

"In between these four-year meetings, we have got partner committees which meet to jointly review progress of what has been decided in the JPC," Rutsinga explained.

Areas of cooperation include agriculture, education, infrastructure, rural development, decentralization and justice. The meeting will bring together various stakeholders from different ministries and government departments in the country.

Ends