Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has been praised by Rwanda’s president for being at the forefront of solving the most pressing issues to hit the world and region.
These include energy security, humanitarian response in the Middle East, as well as the global fight against corruption, a tweet sent by the official Twitter account of the Office of the President of Rwanda said on Saturday.
“Qatar, under his leadership, is at the forefront of finding solutions to some of the most urgent challenges of the day, from energy security, to humanitarian response in the Middle East, and the global fight against corruption,” the tweet read, quoting the president.
“President Kagame: I could not have thought of a better person to invite, as a very special guest of the Commonwealth, tonight,” it added, describing the amir as “a friend and a partner to so many of us”.
Qatar’s amir was in Rwanda on Friday to attend the Commonwealth Head Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Kigali Convention Center, as per an invitation by the president.
The leader then went on to Algeria for his last stop before heading back to Doha.
On Saturday, Sheikh Tamim attended the opening ceremony for the Mediterranean Games in the Algerian city of Oran. The trip to Algeria comes after President Abdelmadjid Tebboune made a visit to the Qatari capital in February.
‘Significant’ Cairo visit
The trip to Rwanda on Friday was followed with a stopover in Cairo, where the amir met with Egypt’s President Abdelfattah El Sisi for the first time since the 2017 blockade.
His visit to Egypt comes more than a year after the signing of the Al-Ula declaration in January 2021, in which Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt signed the accord to end the region’s biggest diplomatic dispute in decades.
The rift was triggered when Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain imposed an illegal air, land and sea embargo on Qatar over claims that it supported terrorism. Qatar vehemently rejected those claims as baseless.
This is Sheikh Tamim’s second visit to Egypt since the 2013 military coup in Cairo that saw Sisi seize power from then-leader Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first ever democratically elected president.
The amir had travelled to Sharm El-Sheikh in 2015 to attend the Arab Summit, which also came after a previous 2014 GCC spat.
Analysts told Doha News that the visit marks a significant development in ties between Qatar and Egypt following the major dispute.
“The visit is certainly of significant importance given that it is the first of its kind in almost seven years and is expected to fully normalise the relations between Doha and Cairo and pave the way for the two players to strengthen their ties, especially on the economic level,” Dr. Ali Bakeer, political analyst and researcher, told Doha News.
