At the 45th Caribbean Community (Caricom) summit in Trinidad and Tobago, Rwandan President Paul Kagame pressed for closer connections between Caribbean and African nations and urged both areas to stop pointing the finger at one another for their issues.
“We should not be comfortable blaming others for our problems, including the harm we inflict on ourselves,” President Kagame said.
“The starting point here is how we govern our own individual countries, striving to be the best we can be, with a culture of accountability,” he added in a statement.
“We need to come together in real terms and focus on concrete initiatives which address the challenges that nations like ours face today,” Mr Kagame said.
He emphasized the need for both areas to promote more inclusive credit terms for nations that require loans as well as more collaboration in the fight against climate change.
He also spoke about opportunities for both regions to improve connectivity when it comes to “transport and telecommunications”.
He also mentioned Haiti, which Rwanda has previously said it was willing to support in terms of security and peacekeeping, according to the Miami Herald.
President Kagame said his country “cannot look away” and that Rwanda’s own painful history shows that “nothing is beyond repair”.
Haiti has descended into increasing lawlessness since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.