CHINESE DELEGATIONS VISIT KIGALI

UNCLAS KIGALI 000854 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL EAID RW SUBJECT: CHINESE DELEGATIONS VISIT KIGALI ¶1. (U) Two Chinese delegations visited Kigali the week of August 28. A Communist Party delegation, led by Wu Guanzheng, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, conducted closed-door discussions with the Secretary General Francois Ngarambe and other RPF officials. Chinese Minister of Cooperation Wang Jiarui led separate discussions with Minister of State Rosemary Museminali under the aegis of the Fifth Rwanda-China Joint Committee on Economic, Technical and Trade Cooperation. Local media gave prominent place to the Chinese financing of a new office building for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a railway feasibility project. According to the minutes of the Joint Committee meeting, supplied to the embassy by Foreign Ministry contacts, the Chinese also agreed to consider construction of a new football stadium, a women's center, and a Confucius Institute. At the meeting Rwanda formally requested duty-free access to Chinese markets, and also expressed appreciation for completed rice and road projects. ¶2. (U) The visit of the delegations coincides with 35 years of diplomatic relations between the two governments. In a public meeting with Wu Guanzheng, President Kagame pledged to attend the upcoming China-Africa forum. The two leaders pledged to seek stronger economic ties, and, at a later dinner, the two men witnessed the signature of several technical and development agreements. ¶3. (SBU) Comment: The prominent press coverage given to the financing of the new Foreign Ministry building (something previously agreed to) conforms to the Chinese predilection for announcing large public projects in the visited nation's capital. The railway feasibility study concerns a project long dear to the GOR, the construction of a railway line from Isaka in western Tanzania to Kigali and Bujumbura. Many of Rwanda's imports pass through the dry-port of Isaka, routed the rest of the way by road. An extended railway line would greatly reduce freight costs. ARIETTI