Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe, met with Dr. Badr Abdelatty, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, on the sidelines of the 46th Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The two ministers discussed opportunities to strengthen bilateral relations and addressed the security situation in the Great Lakes region.
Egypt and Rwanda share strong and diversified relations across political, economic, cultural, and developmental sectors, with mutual interests in various regional and international matters.
According to the Rwandan Embassy in Cairo, the Egyptian Embassy in Kigali was established in 1976, while the Rwandan Embassy in Cairo reopened in March 2015.
Recent high-level visits have reinforced the strong ties between the two countries. President Paul Kagame visited Egypt in April 2019, following President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s state visit to Rwanda in August 2017.
In August 2024, Rwanda and Egypt signed a $3.3 million agreement to supply medical equipment for the Magdi Yacoub Rwanda-Egypt Heart Centre in Masaka, Kicukiro District.
This facility, initiated through a 2021 Memorandum of Understanding between the Rwandan and Egyptian governments and the Rwanda Heart Care and Research Centre, aims to provide free cardiovascular care and is expected to be operational by early 2026.
Additionally, on August 12, 2024, both nations signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cooperation in the transport sector. As part of this collaboration, Rwanda allocated land near its border with Tanzania for Egypt to establish a logistics zone, facilitating trade and investment between the two countries.
The Egyptian-Rwandan Joint Commission, established in September 1989, held its second session in Cairo from September 7 to 10, 2009.
This session, chaired by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of both countries, resulted in the signing of ten cooperation agreements in areas such as economic and technical collaboration, agriculture, customs, youth, industrial development, petroleum and mineral resources, education, health, culture, and scientific and technological cooperation.
Both countries are active members of regional organizations, including COMESA, the NEPAD Initiative, the African Union, and the Nile Basin Initiative.