Brussels, 19 February 2024
Today, the European Union and Rwanda have entered an important agreement to nurture sustainable and resilient value chains for critical raw materials. Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, and Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vincent Biruta, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen Rwanda’s role in fostering sustainable development and resilient value chains across Africa.
This Memorandum of Understanding establishes close cooperation between the EU and Rwanda in the following five areas: Integration of sustainable raw materials value chains and support for economic diversification; cooperation to achieve sustainable and responsible production and valorisation of critical and strategic raw materials; mobilisation of funding for deployment of infrastructure required for the development of raw material value chains; Research and innovation and sharing of knowledge and technologies related to sustainable exploration, extraction, refining, processing, valorisation and recycling of critical and strategic raw materials; and the building of capacity to enforce relevant rules, increasing training and skills related to the critical and strategic raw materials value chain.
The signature of the Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Rwanda signals both parties’ intention to strengthen their partnership for closer integration of raw materials value chains. This cooperation model will bring the possibility for the partner country to diversify their economy and will be a driver for structural transformation.
A press release with more information is available online.
Source – EU Commission