At least 40 Heads of Government have confirmed to attend the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), slated for late this month. The development was announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Vincent Biruta, in his address to journalists on Rwanda’s current preparedness on Tuesday. Biruta also briefed journalists on the latest impasse of Rwanda and her western neighboring country Democratic Republic of Congo. He reiterated Rwanda’s commitment to the path of dialogue of peace between both countries. Despite the incident however, he said that ongoing preparations to host over 5,000 delegates for CHOGM are unhindered, citing that there were several signs of progress. “The country is in a good state, we are preparing for CHOGM later this coming month, at least forty heads of state and government have already confirmed attendance,” he told the media. Minister Biruta also issued a rallying call to different categories of people including the youth, women, business community and the civil society to leverage on the respective forums expected during the meeting. “All of them (forums) are expected and preparations are ongoing, we believe we will host a successful meeting,” he said. During her visit to Rwanda last month, the Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland QC said that over half of the association’s 54 member countries had conformed to the attendance at the meeting slated from June 20 through 25. On Rwanda’s readiness to host CHOGM in a safe environment, she said “I think Rwanda has taken every step. The first thing to say is that Rwanda has done extraordinarily well in managing the pandemic for her own people, but also the way in which they are testing, the distancing, the measures that have been taken which have kept Rwandese safe, will now keep the international community safe when we come.”
