Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda Olivier Nduhungirehe at the MFA in Jerusalem
Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar met today (Monday, 6 July 2026) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Rwanda, Olivier Nduhungirehe.
The ministers first held a private meeting, followed by an expanded meeting with their respective delegations. At the start of the expanded meeting, the two ministers delivered joint statements to the media.
The ministers also signed an Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Education, including vocational training and professional capacity-building, as well as a Memorandum of Understanding to promote cooperation with Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV).
“Welcome to Jerusalem Rwanda Minister of Foreign Affairs Olivier nduhungirehe. Today we signed agreements to expand cooperation in development, innovation and education, strengthening the partnership between our nations. We also discussed Israel’s security challenges and the U.S. brokered peace agreement between Rwanda and the DRC, and the importance of its implementation. We are two nations with painful histories, remarkable resilience, and an unwavering determination to build a better future for our people”, Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar said via X.
During his remarks to the media, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar addressed the recent statements made by Turkey’s Foreign Minister:
“I must address the appalling remarks made a few days ago by Turkey’s Foreign Minister, the Foreign Minister of the country that will host tomorrow’s NATO Summit.
He said of the Jewish state: ‘These people have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear.’
This is a sentence that sounds very familiar to sentences from about 100 years ago. To speak about a people as a ‘problem for humanity.’ What do you do with a ‘burden that you can no longer bear’?
These words are a clear call for genocide.
The Jewish people know very well what happens when such words are allowed to go unchallenged. The first step on the road to genocide is dehumanization.”
Both Rwanda and Israeli nations deeply anchor their modern national identities in the historical memory of extermination—the Holocaust for the Jewish people and the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi for Rwandans. Leaders from both countries frequently emphasize this shared understanding of existential threat, resilience, and the global imperative to fight antisemitism and genocide against the Tutsi denial. Because both are relatively small nations situated in volatile regions, they often align on security, agricultural, and technological partnerships. (End)