Member of Estonian Parliament Mr. Eerik-Niiles Kross participated on 7th April 2018 in the commemoration event of the 24th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. Besides Rwandan ministers and the diplomatic community in Kigali, President Paul Kagame also took part in the commemoration event. 7 April 2018 marked 24 years since the start of the 1994 genocide. President Kagame emphasised in his speech that everything possible should be done so that such events would never again occur.
The Estonian representatives also met the Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Security of Rwandan Parliament Mr. Mutimura Zeno, and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry for Information and Communication Technology, Mr. Francois Gatarayiha in Kigali, Rwanda on 5 April. Mr Kross and the representatives of Rwanda discussed among other topics possibilities for enhancing inter-parliamentary relations and cooperation on ICT issues.
The Estonian delegation was led by Mr. Eerik Niles Kross, the Special Envoy of the President of Estonia and Member of Parliament. Mr. Kross was accompanied by Mr. Daniel Schaer, Ambassador-at-Large and Special Diplomatic Representative of the President of the Republic of Estonia in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ms. Kaisa Mitt-Alvarez, counsellor at the UN Security Council Task force of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Rwandan and Estonian representatives agreed that the two countries have many things in common, notably the size of the countries and their interest in digital development, and there are good outlooks for future cooperation between Rwanda and Estonia. Rwandan ICT experts will visit Estonia at the end of April, 2018, and will also participate in the e-Governance Academy conference taking place in Tallinn at the end of May 2018. Estonian ICT experts will in turn participate in the Transform Africa Summit, which will focus on e-governance and ITC issues, in May 2018.
Mr. Kross also invited a Rwandan parliamentary delegation to visit Tallinn.
