KIGALI, Rwanda

The Turkish government is offering capacity-building to Rwandan police officers, and bilateral relations are at their best, according to Turkey's ambassador to Rwanda.

“For the past three years we have offered training to 250 police officers. Training is done both here in Rwanda and in Turkey,’’ Ambassador Burcu Cevik told Anadolu Agency in an interview on Wednesday.

Cevik said Rwanda is a unique country which has been able to quickly overcome its history of a genocide and transform to achieve so much in terms of economy, peace, stability and politics, among others.

"We very much respect the achievements of Rwanda and would like to increase our cooperation with them," she said.

Cevik noted that Rwandan Police Chief Dan Munyuza would be traveling to Turkey this week to hold talks with his Turkish counterpart.

The diplomat also said Turkey cooperates with the Rwanda Defense Force and is looking forward to enhancing cooperation in trainings.

Flourishing diplomatic ties

Although Turkey established its embassy in Kigali only in 2014, the bilateral relations today are at their best.

The two countries have already signed 20 cooperative agreements in fields ranging from education to trade and investment, Cevik said, and added: “It’s now time for us to implement these agreements.”

In 2019, Rwanda’s then-Foreign Minister Richard Sezibera and the Chief of General Staff Gen. Patrick Nyamvumba visited Turkey to hold bilateral meetings.

‘‘We want to increase these high level visits of delegations from both sides and hope that in future we shall have presidential visits,’’ she said.

Turkey has also extended an invitation to Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta to attend next month’s Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey.

Cevik also said that Turkey hopes to see further bilateral high-level official meetings. 

Trade relations

Turkish companies have invested about $400 million in Rwanda in the past decade, constituting roughly 13% of the country’s direct foreign investment.

"Our total volume of trade in 2019 was $32.5 million, we hope to work hard to raise our trade [volume]," she noted.

She also called on Turkish business people to come and invest in Rwanda, because it’s a business friendly country.

“Rwanda is the fastest growing economy in East Africa with 8% annual GDP growth. It has a dynamic young society, [with a] corruption-free good governance and investor-friendly [business environment],’’

She also said a number of Turkish companies were involved in huge construction projects in the East African nation.

“One of our companies built the Kigali Convention Center as well as the Kigali Arena [two monumental buildings]," she noted, adding that another Turkish company was building a huge power plant in Rwanda, and when completed, will provide nearly half of the country’s energy needs.