Israeli Diplomat Yuval Rotem discusses Rwanda-Israel flourishing bilateral relations, cooperation

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00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - The very presence of an embassy of Israel in Kigali

00:06 means that we are ready to take our relationship

00:09 into a different stage.

00:10 This stage depends primarily on this energy

00:15 and the degree of interest that exists

00:18 in between the two countries.

00:20 Given the fact that the two leaders,

00:22 yours and ours, President Kagame and Prime Minister Netanyahu

00:26 feel very comfortable strategically, economically

00:30 and politically, I guess that you're going to see

00:33 an enhancement of the relationship to a new level.

00:37 I think you're going to see more cooperation,

00:41 more collaboration in many areas that is possible.

00:46 And above all, I do hope that in the very near future

00:49 we're also going to have a direct flights

00:52 from Kigali to Tel Aviv, which I think are critical

00:56 for the advance of this relationship.

00:58 Not just in the area of tourism,

01:00 but also in the area of business,

01:02 which I think are the most fundamental element

01:07 to put this relationship forward.

01:10 Your country tried to move forward as well economically.

01:13 And I think that you tried to be hub of IT in Africa.

01:18 And given the fact that Israel is a powerhouse in high tech,

01:24 I think there is a room and a great potential

01:27 for cooperation and collaboration

01:30 between your countries and our countries.

01:32 If you talk about technology, about science,

01:36 about innovation, about creativity,

01:39 about entrepreneurship, you will not find

01:42 a better friend than Israel for Rwanda.

01:44 And I think we are ready for this stage.

01:47 So if you're going to move into the next stage economically

01:53 in terms of moving from agricultural oriented country

01:57 into more IT oriented country,

02:00 I think we have a lot to do in common.

02:02 One way when you can measure degree of cooperation

02:07 is to see direct flights were established

02:09 between two countries.

02:11 And I know that there is a great desire on your end

02:14 to have a direct flight of your national air carrier

02:18 from Kigali to Tel Aviv.

02:20 If that's going to take place,

02:21 which I hopefully believe is going to take place

02:23 sooner rather than later,

02:25 I think you're going to see a significant increase

02:27 of number of tourism and above all business people

02:31 traveling from Tel Aviv to Kigali

02:34 three or four times a week.

02:36 That's going to change completely

02:38 the landscape of our relationship.

02:40 And I do hope that this will be the great measure

02:43 of advancement of this relationship.

02:45 Everyone who has stepped over here,

02:47 all the Israeli business people,

02:50 people from our own ministry,

02:53 talk about Kigali in a different way,

02:56 in a different tone, in a different language.

02:59 And for me it's the first time I'm here.

03:01 And you're going to hear it

03:03 if you cover the opening of the embassy

03:05 in about one hour from now.

03:07 I'm going to relate exactly to that line.

03:10 It's like extending and expanding our family to Africa.

03:15 The fact that we are opening an embassy over here,

03:19 this is the story.

03:20 And that's the reason why our foreign aid agency,

03:23 Mashal, opens today the biggest ever project

03:28 of the Israeli foreign agency element

03:34 in any other country.

03:35 Rwanda will have the biggest ever project of Israel.

03:39 And that's going to be in the area of agriculture.

03:42 You will be center of excellence

03:45 if you want to succeed in agriculture.

03:48 Excellent, and excellence is the words that you need

03:52 for promoting your country in this regard.

03:55 When we stated that Israel is going to be back to Africa

04:00 and Africa is going to be back to Israel,

04:02 we meant that we are going to have a far more relationship

04:06 with as many countries as we can in Africa.

04:09 But the cherry on the cake is Rwanda.

04:15 And that's the reason why it was very important to us

04:20 to establish an embassy here in Rwanda.

04:23 There was no residence of Israelis here diplomatically

04:28 since 1973.

04:30 So it's almost 50 years.

04:33 And we have, maybe it took us too long.

04:37 But now we are going to try to catch up the time.

04:41 And we are going to give a thing that's very different,

04:45 I would say momentum to this relationship.

04:48 And the fact that we have already a presence

04:50 of an ambassador here means a great deal

04:53 for this relationship.

04:54 [Music]

04:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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