HE the President of the Senate, Dr. BIRUTA Vincent, HE the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, MUKANTABANA Rose and Secretary General of the Commonwealth, KAMALESH SHARMA

In her introductory remarks, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, MUKANTABANA Rose highlighted that the visit depicts importance the Commonwealth is assigning to Rwanda. She also indicated that the Parliament of Rwanda is eager to further relationship and cooperation between the Parliament and Commonwealth Family in general and between the Parliament and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, in particular.

As was indicated by Kamalesh Sharma, the visit is meant for officially welcoming Rwanda to the Commonwealth organization. He also said that this acceptance of Rwanda to the body results from recognition of what Rwanda has achieved so far in terms of national unity and reconciliation, power sharing, political pluralism, human rights, gender equality and equity, etc. The Secretary General to Commonwealth pledged and reaffirmed the commitment of the organization and of its all 53 other Member States to strengthen such values democracy, human rights among others and highlighted the fact that both Rwanda and Commonwealth will always have experiences and lessons to share.