Luanda - Angola's ambassador to Rwanda, Eduardo Octávio, on Tuesday in Kigali, Rwanda´s capital city, discussed bilateral cooperation between the two countries with the Rwandan Senate President, François Xavier Kalinda.
During the meeting granted to the Angolan diplomat in the Rwandan Parliament, he took the opportunity to inform the Rwandan official of the state of political and diplomatic relations, as well as economic cooperation between Angola and Rwanda.
At the time, he also delivered a message of congratulations from the Speaker of the Angolan Parliament, Carolina Cerqueira, to François Xavier Kalinda, on his recent appointment as the new President of the Senate of Rwanda.
On his turn, François Xavier Kalinda said he was satisfied with the current state of relations between the two countries and hoped to maintain good cooperation between the Rwandan and Angolan parliaments, both members of various parliamentary forums.
He expressed the wish to visit Angola in the framework of the Parliamentary Union Assembly (IPU) scheduled for October this year.
The Parliament of Rwanda is made up of 106 MPs, whose 61% are women and they are distributed in two chambers, namely the Chamber of Deputies, with 80 members, and the Senate Chamber, with 26 senators.
However, the Angolan Parliament, with a single chamber, has 220 members, 130 of whom are elected by the national constituency and 90 by the provincial constituency.
Bilateral Agreements
The legal basis for bilateral cooperation between Angola and Rwanda was officialized on May 15, 2014, with the signing of the Framework Agreement on Economic, Technical, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation and the Agreement on the Creation of the Bilateral Commission.
The two countries signed on 30 May this year nine legal instruments, among them the agreements to prevent double tax, extradition, mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, transfer of convicted persons, memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of agriculture and livestock development.
The memorandum of understanding on Local Government, Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas, Health Cooperation as well as the memorandum of understanding on the National School of Administration and Public Policy between the Rwanda Institute of Management. VM/MRA/jmc
