ANKARA: Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited Rwanda last week with the aim of strengthening ties between the two countries. During his visit, the two governments signed bilateral cooperation agreements in a number of areas. Following the signing, The New Times’ Collins Mwai spoke to the Turkish Ambassador to Rwanda, Mehmet Raif Karaca, to learn more about the areas for cooperation between the two countries. The ambassador told Mwai that there are two more agreements yet to be signed in the field of economic cooperation and there will be another agreement in agriculture cooperation.
He also reported that presently Turkey is importing a lot of fruit and vegetables, some of which are also grown in Rwanda. With the signing of the economic agreements, these imports will become easier in the future. He also said that Rwanda should not only aim at producing and exporting agricultural produce and raw materials to Turkey, but also process it to add value.