“Had a good meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, discussed strengthening mutually beneficial partnership with Africa and reaffirmed commitment to bilateral relations including opening an embassy in Rwanda soon,” Kagame wrote on his twitter account.
In December 2017 when the two heads of state met in Nairobi, Kenya to attend the festivities surrounding the inauguration of President Uhuru Kenyatta, Netanyahu was quoted by the Jerusalem Post announcing the opening of a new embassy in Rwanda, and met with leaders from nearly a dozen African nations.
“We are opening a new embassy in the Rwandan capital Kigali as part of Israel’s expanding presence in Africa and the deepening of cooperation between Israel and the countries of Africa,” He said after meeting Kagame in Nairobi.
The leaders also discussed the possibility of opening a direct air link between Israel and Rwanda, Netanyahu’s office stated.
Rwanda and Israel established diplomatic relations soon after the former Belgian colony gained independence in July 1962, but those ties were severed later in 1973 after Yom Kippur War when most African states-under Arab pressure-broke relations with Israel. With the reestablishment of ties in October 1994, Rwanda sent an ambassador to Israel, but had to close the embassy because of budgetary constraints some six years later.
The embassy was reopened with the appointment of Rwanda’s Ambassador to Israel Joseph Rutabana in 2015, and is one of its 53 embassies around the world (21 outside of Africa). Israel is served in Rwanda by a nonresident ambassador operating out of Addis Ababa.
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