President Paul Kagame on September 21 met with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy to discuss ways of strengthening cooperation in different areas of mutual interest.

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The two leaders met on the sidelines of the 78th session UN General Assembly taking place from September 20 to 26, in New York, USA.

"They discussed ways to further strengthen cooperation between Rwanda and Italy, in areas of mutual interest including defense, agriculture, health, technology, among others,” the President’s office said.

Italy and Rwanda enjoy cordial relations.

In April, the Italian Prime Minister defended the UK-Rwanda migration deal saying the plan by the UK government to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was an agreement between free nations, seeking to safeguard the safety of people and that it is wrong to call it a deportation.

"I think that talking about deportation or suggesting that Rwanda would be a country that does not respect rights and would be an inadequate or unworthy nation is a racist way of interpreting things," she said while in London.

In June, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Felix Namuhoranye had a three-day working visit in Italy at the invitation of his counterpart, Lt. Gen Teo Luzi, the Commander General of the Italian Arma dei Carabinieri. They discussed strengthening the existing bilateral cooperation.

In the energy sector, with the government’s goal to decrease flight and logistics costs while establishing an integrated transport system that links with the region, it partnered with Italian-based Eni, an energy company that currently deals in the de-carbonization of transport.

The firm is an integrated energy company whose dedication to the energy transition translates into tangible actions aimed at achieving the total decarbonization of products and processes by 2050.

Rwanda and Italy also have an air service agreement signed in 2018 for the two countries to open skies for each other’s commercial airlines, under what is known as bilateral air services agreements in aviation terms.