|
Rwanda, France talks 'positive'
10/12/2007 13:18 - (SA)
Kigali - A Rwandan member of government said on Monday that a recent meeting between the presidents of France and Rwanda had paved the way for a resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Rwandan State Minister for Co-operation Rosemary Museminari was speaking on the governmental Radio Rwanda after a meeting between France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Rwanda's Paul Kagame at a European Union-Africa summit in Lisbon on Saturday.
Museminari said: "I would say that they have laid the foundation for a process of resumption of diplomatic relations."
"There is hope," she said, adding that although both leaders admitted "much work remained to be done", their meeting had been "positive and friendly".
Speaking to reporters in Lisbon on Saturday, Sarkozy had already said that both countries were working towards a resumption of ties.
He said: "We have decided to establish a working group, which should bring about the resumption of our diplomatic relations."
Kigali broke off relations with Paris in November 2006 after a French judge issued arrest warrants against close aides to Kagame over the assassination of then president Juvenal Habyarimana, which sparked the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
There had already been signs of a thaw in recent weeks, with the two countries' foreign ministers meeting at UN headquarters in New York on the sidelines of the general assembly.
- AFP
|
News
