Gail Alexan­der

This coun­try re­cent­ly es­tab­lished diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions with Rwan­da ahead of the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing (CHOGM), which will be held in Rwan­da lat­er this month and which T&T will at­tend.

Yes­ter­day, For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia that he will rep­re­sent Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley at the up­com­ing 26th CHOGM.

The CHOGM will be held in Ki­gali, Rwan­da from June 20-25. It was orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for June 20-27 in 2020 but was post­poned twice due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

T&T is one of the Com­mon­wealth’s 54 mem­bers and had host­ed CHOGM in 2009.

Row­ley, Browne and En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young are cur­rent­ly in Los An­ge­les at­tend­ing the Sum­mit of the Amer­i­c­as, which was of­fi­cial­ly launched yes­ter­day.

The For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry yes­ter­day not­ed that T&T had played a sup­port­ive role in em­brac­ing Rwan­da’s ap­pli­ca­tion for mem­ber­ship in the Com­mon­wealth.

The min­istry said T&T and Rwan­da have es­tab­lished diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions with a sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny which took place at T&T’s Per­ma­nent Mis­sion to the Unit­ed Na­tions in New York. Diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions were es­tab­lished on May 26, 2022.

Sign­ing the joint com­mu­niqué on T&T’s be­half was Den­nis Fran­cis, T&T’s Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the Unit­ed Na­tions in New York and Claver Gatete, Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Rwan­da to the Unit­ed Na­tions in New York.

The min­istry added, “Pri­or to the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny, both Am­bas­sadors re­called the strong ties of friend­ship and co­op­er­a­tion that al­ready ex­ist be­tween their re­spec­tive coun­tries, both in the bi­lat­er­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al con­texts, in­clud­ing as mem­bers of the bloc of de­vel­op­ing coun­tries in the Unit­ed Na­tions, the Group of 77 and Chi­na, and as Com­mon­wealth mem­bers.

“As the next CHOGM meet­ing will take place this month in Ki­gali, Rwan­da, both Am­bas­sadors wel­comed the for­mal es­tab­lish­ment of diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions as time­ly, recog­nis­ing the vi­tal sup­port­ive role that the Gov­ern­ment of T&T played in em­brac­ing Rwan­da’s ap­pli­ca­tion for mem­ber­ship of the Com­mon­wealth.”

Rwan­da’s ad­mit­tance to the Com­mon­wealth took place dur­ing the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing held in Port-of-Spain in 2009, which was chaired by T&T.

The min­istry added that both Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tives em­pha­sised the co­op­er­a­tion be­tween the two coun­tries, in­clud­ing the strength­en­ing re­la­tion­ship be­tween Cari­com and Africa, on crit­i­cal is­sues of glob­al im­por­tance—in­ter­na­tion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty, in­vest­ments, cli­mate change, cul­ture and sports, and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment.

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