President Kagame received the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon who arrived in the country to join Rwandans during the 20th commemoration of the genocide. Talking to the press after the meeting with President Kagame, the UN Secretary General said he was in the country to join Rwandans in general and families and relatives of genocide victims in commemorating the genocide:
“I am going to re-affirm the international community’s commitment to Never Again… and this should never happen again in human history. We learnt the hard lessons from the Rwanda genocide but another genocide happened one year later in Srebrenica in 1995 and there are still symptoms elsewhere. We have to stop this. Last Monday there was an important international conference on prevention of genocide where Rwanda was represented by the Foreign Minister where we affirmed the determined will of the international community there should not be genocide in the name of humanity. I highly commend the leadership of Paul Kagame who led this country and in just 20 years, made a shining example of social economic development, democracy, protecting and preserving human rights of all the people and I hope that this example will be emulated by many other countries. We have to learn the lessons, and translate them into action and that's my commitment as the UN Secretary General”
President Kagame said:
“It is of great significance to have the Secretary General, Ban Ki moon here on this occasion and it underscores the global partnership that we can forge to deal with tragedies like we witnessed here. The Secretary General has been here on several occasions but this is different because he is here to be with Rwandans, with a nation that has suffered in this way, to render his support and that of the institution he heads in the name of the global world we live in. I want to express the gratitude of the entire nation for this gesture.”
President Kagame also traveled to Brussels where he attended the 4th EU-Africa Summit themed “Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace.” The summit brought together leaders from Africa and the European Union to discuss issues including peace and security, economy and climate change.
The summit also held a special meeting on the Central African Republic hosted by President Van Rompuy, President Hollande of France and President Abdel Aziz of Mauritania. Rwanda currently has 800 troops serving as peacekeepers in Central African Republic.
Received by President Kagame in March of this year, the European Union Commissioner for development, Andris Piebalgs announced a new six-year development partnership between Rwanda and the European Union:
“For the period of 2014-2020 our goal is to strengthen economic growth in the country by focusing on the energy sector reform and Agriculture because they create job and economic growth. We also have this big Europe Africa Summit in Brussels in April.”
The previous EU-Africa summits took place in Cairo in 2000, in Lisbon in 2007 and in Tripoli in 2010
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