Starting January 1 next year, any citizen from around the world, including India, holding a valid passport, can enter Rwanda by air, sea, or road, by getting a visa-on-arrival, its envoy said here today.
The facility is currently available only to African countries and a few countries outside of the continent, Rwanda's High Commissioner to India Ernest Rwamucyo said.
"With India we already have good bilateral relations, which was elevated to a strategic level. And, during India's (former) Vice President Hamid Ansari visit to our country in February, an agreement was signed to allow the two countries to mutually exempt visa requirements for diplomatic and official passport holder," he said.
That agreement has been "ratified" and so will come into effect soon. But, our government recently took a very bold decision on relaxing visa regime for all travellers, he said.
"From January 1 next year, any citizen from around the world, holding a valid passport, can enter Rwanda by air, sea, or road, and get a visa stamped on their arrival. So, we are really opening up our borders to people globally," Rwamucyo said.
The Rwandan High Commissioner was interacting with journalists at the Foreign Correspondents' Club here on India-Rwanda ties and later fielded a number of question on various subjects.
"The visa-on-arrival would be applicable for 30 days under the new relaxed visa regime. The entrants would need to pay a fee where applicable.
"As of now, the visa-on-arrival facility is available only to African countries and few other countries like the US, the UK, Germany, Singapore. Also, for some countries in Africa, no visa fee is charged," Rwamucyo said.
On the new Indian mission proposed to be opened in its capital city Kigali, billed one of the cleanest and the safest cities globally, he said, "Work is going on, on that as well."
On the new RwandAir service that was launched on April 3 this year, in pursuant of Ansari's visit, from Mumbai to Kigali, he said, the response so far has been "good".
The envoy also congratulated India on winning a seat in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as Dalveer Bhandari, was re-elected to the post.
Asked if India or the US should feel worried about China operating a military base in Djibouti, he said, "Africa is attracting every one. And, for Rwanda, I can say, as long as the entering country brings good deal to us, they should be welcomed. That good deal means, bringing business, jobs and helping in addressing poverty."
On other question about its Commonwealth status, the envoy said, "We became a member of the Commonwealth in 2009. It is good for us."
Nicknamed the 'land of a thousand hills', Rwanda is a country blessed with mountains, rain forest, and is also home to gorillas.
The country saw a traumatic period in 1994 when it suffered a terrible genocide, but rebuilt itself and today stands as a country that is attracting attention of both the investors and travellers, he said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
