Cross-border activities between Uganda and Rwanda, including the movement of persons and goods, are to resume following a memorandum of understanding signed by President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.
The two leaders signed the MOU in Angola’s capital, Luanda, after months of high-level political dialogue. The memorandum of understanding on regional co-operation and security has set the pace for the improvement of political and trade relations between the two countries.
The agreement between Museveni and Kagame was signed at the second quadripartite summit and was facilitated by the President of Angola, Joao Manuel Lourenco and Felix Antoine Tshisekedi, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The signing was also witnessed by President Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville.
Commenting about the pact, Kagame, during the press conference said: “We are not going to be found wanting in not only respecting the communique but also our brothers who have brought us together to reach this understanding.”
“We are going to address all the problems. By doing that indiscriminately, we will get where we want to be. The MOU addresses all the matters clearly and I don’t think we should be picking and choosing what we implement and what we don’t,” Kagame added
Museveni, according to the statement, said he was already in touch with Kagame to seek a resolution of the issues between the two countries when presidents Lourenco and Tshisekedi invited him to this summit.
“I was already in touch with President Kagame through our own channels, but this came as a reinforcement. We are just reaffirming what we have always held as principles of the African Union,” Museveni said during a media briefing at the gardens of the Presidential Palace in Luanda.
Yesterday, Kagame welcomed the new pact, saying it is not difficult to solve the existing mild problems between Uganda and Rwanda.
“I see no problem in Rwanda working with President Lourenco, President Tshisekedi and more specifically with President Museveni to address what we have agreed to address. I think it is not difficult to address many of the problems we have had, it may take a bit of time to understand each other, but I think we have come a long way,” he said
Museveni and Kagame have also agreed to comprehensively co-operate in politics, security, defense, trade and culture in the spirit of Pan- Africanism and regional co-operation.
To implement the resolutions, State House officials said, the leaders agreed to establish an ad hoc commission headed by ministers of foreign affairs and composed of ministers of internal administration and heads of intelligence, to see this through.