The Third Ethiopia-Rwanda Joint Ministerial Commission Meeting that will stay till Tuesday has begun in Addis Ababa today by high-ranking officials of both countries.
This opening session led by African Affairs Director-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fiseha Showel and Rwanda’s Ambassador to Ethiopia Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Charles Karamba has featured high-ranking officials represented from both countries.
African Affairs Director-General at Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fiseha Showel said Ethiopia and Rwanda have excellent relations.
He stated that the areas of cooperation between the two countries have diversified after the signing of a dozen of Memorandum of Understandings during the second Joint Ministerial Commission meeting held in Kigali in 2017.
‘The implementation and follow up of such agreements is not as it should have been partly due to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that took us about two to three years and we are trying to compensate the time we lost so far,’ he added.
‘As
we have been doing it, we need to consolidate our regional cooperation, especially in areas of peace and security, fighting of terrorism, transboundary crimes, cooperation in the management, development and utilization of shared natural resources, protection of the impacts of climate change and other emerging global issues of common interest to both of us.
This joint ministerial commission is one of the mechanisms to keep our stronger relations moving to further heights.We have to establish the follow up mechanism so that we can make things in order timely,” he added.
Rwanda’s Ambassador to Ethiopia Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Charles Karamba said for his part that the countries enjoy excellent bilateral relations and also at a multilateral level including at the African Union and the UN.
The ambassador emphasized that the meeting will further strengthen their bilateral relations.
‘The outcome of this third joint ministerial commission will go a long way in the strengthening our bilateral cooperation,’ he added.
Whe
n the meeting concludes, Ethiopia and Rwanda are expected to emerge with a renewed commitment to work together, building on the existing strong ties, it was indicated.
The agreement establishing the Joint Ministerial Commission was signed in 2012.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency