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Exclusive | ‘We can’t be bullied’: Rwanda won’t take sides in US-China rivalry, envoy says
- Rwandan envoy James Kimonyo says both the US and China are his country’s friends and tensions between the two should be settled systematically
- Kimonyo dismisses claims that Beijing is pursuing debt-trap diplomacy in Africa as illogical
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Rwanda will not be “bullied” into taking sides in the superpower rivalry between the United States and China, a senior Rwandan diplomat said in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, adding that Beijing has been “really helpful” to many African economies.
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James Kimonyo, Rwanda’s ambassador to China, said both Washington and Beijing were important partners for the African country, which has been rebuilding its economy in the three decades since the end of its genocide.
“The United States is our friend. In the same way, China is our friend,” he said. “We can’t be bullied, we can’t be forced. We think China is a very good friend of ours and nobody can tell us otherwise.”
Kimonyo, who was Rwanda’s envoy to the US from 2007 to 2013, said that if issues arose among major powers, there should be a “framework” to address them.
In the case of the US and China, he noted, the two countries had had a series of meetings and high-profile visits even when they disagreed on some issues.
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This included Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with his American counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco in November, leading to the restoration of military communication and exchanges between the two sides.
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