Vice President Ansari discusses ways to enhance India, Rwanda ties with Senate President

Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari today met Rwandan Senate President Bernard Makuza in Kigali and discussed ways to enhance bilateral ties.

The Vice-President met Makuza at the Senate, accompanied by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla and other senior officials.

The two sides then held bilateral talks.

Vice President Ansari also gifted a copy of the Indian Constitution to Mr Makuza. He later attended a luncheon hosted by the Senate President.

Later, he called on Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Earlier in the day, the Vice President visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial and paid tributes to the victims of the horrific tragedy. The site is the final resting place for more than 250,000 people who were massacred in the 1994 in Rwanda.

This is India's first high-level visit to Rwanda.

Vice President Ansari will depart from Kigali tomorrow for the next leg of his visit to Uganda.

Yesterday, in order to enhance the bilateral ties with Indian diaspora settled in Rwanda, New Delhi announced that it is all set to open its resident mission in the country's capital.

"India and Rwanda are great friends, and Rwanda has a good population of Indian community here and, we have had a valid complaint of not having a resident mission in Kigali. So, the government has already taken up the matter and in the coming week and months the physical presence of resident mission will be here," said Vice-President Hamid Ansari while addressing the Indian community here.

Vice-President Ansari also said that shortly the facility of direct flights between the two countries would be started which would make the bond between India and Rwanda stronger.

"I hope this would not only make things easier, but it would also encourage travel from both the sides for business and tourism," he said.

He further said that the government is working to build ties and give it more content and added that India is willing to strengthen the bilateral relationship that already exists.

"The result of this would be that by the end of the week and in the coming weeks or months there would be a much stronger relationship between the two countries, more purposely which will add greatly to our relations," he added.