Bilateral Relations Rwanda

Bilateral relations with Rwanda are friendly and primarily focus on development cooperation, which started back in the 70s. In 1989 an Austrian Honorary Consulate was opened in Kigali  and Rwanda was declared a priority country of the Austrian Development Cooperation. The Honorary Consulate however was closed again in 2002.

After the genocide in 1994, the development cooperation came to a halt. In September 1997, during a visit of the then Secretary of State Ferrero-Waldner, Austria and Rwanda signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the reactivation of the bilateral development cooperation upon explicit request of the Rwandan government. The focus areas of the Austrian development cooperation were water supply and sanitation as well as a justice sector reform. In the meantime all bilateral projects have been terminated successfully; nevertheless, Austria continues to support the work of NGOs in the country.