Belgian envoy bids farewell

VILLAGE URUGWIRO - The outgoing Belgian Ambassador to Rwanda, Ivo Goemans, yesterday paid a courtesy call on President Paul Kagame at Village Urugwiro to bid him farewell. Goemans who has been Belgium’s ambassador to Kigali for three years is set to move to Helsinki, Finland where he was posted as his country’s envoy. Speaking to reporters after meeting the President, Goemans said that he briefed the Head of State on future cooperation, observing that his three years in Rwanda were “momentous.” “I was well received in Rwanda during all my three years here and today, I was also well received by the President during which meeting we talked about our bilateral relations and cooperation between our countries,” Goemans said. “Our cooperation was enhanced in the last three years and this has to do, on one hand, with historical tradition, our countries know each other from way back but much more than that, we appreciate the way Rwanda decides its own development path.” The outgoing ambassador hailed Rwanda for demonstrating a great commitment to development, noting that the country has showed that it is not about donors’aid to developing countries, but rather the vision and strategy to develop that the country has. “It is not just about throwing aid to a country that needs help but its contributing to a vision that we find here in Rwanda,” Goemans said. “Rwanda is a country that is going forward. That is a very important. It is a country with challenges---yes, huge challenges, but the country is determined to face these challenges and move forward.” According to the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mary Baine, the increasing Belgian investment in Rwanda also discussed Baine added that among other things, the talks touched on the need for information sharing about wanted criminals that could be hiding on Belgian soil, observing that the two countries have been exchanging information on such individuals. Ends

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Belgian envoy bids farewell