allafrica

Kigali — Zambian President Rupiah Banda arrived in Rwanda yesterday afternoon for a two-day working visit.

Banda was received by Prime Minister Bernard Makuza at Kigali International Airport.

Banda who currently chairs the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) is expected to meet his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame and hold talks on regional issues.

His meeting with Kagame will be part of his final consultations on the security situation in the Great Lakes ahead of the African Union (AU) ordinary summit of Heads of State and Government scheduled for end January in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Banda is expected to present a report to the summit on the security situation in the Great Lakes Region.

Rwanda and Zambia have had bilateral relations since the early 1980s and signed a Joint Permanent Cooperation Agreement in 1982.

The two countries are also members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

Zambia contributed troops to the UN peace-keeping mission in Rwanda and was the first African state to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in investigating the 1994 genocide.