Congressional Record, Volume 164 Issue 16 (Tuesday, January 23, 2018)

[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 23, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S454-S458]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

President Paul Kagame

Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I am going to talk about something
different than anyone else has talked about here, and there is a very
good reason for it.
First of all, to try to establish some credibility here, I have had
occasion to spend quite a bit of time working on issues in Africa. In
fact, I have had occasion over the last 23 years to make 156 African
country visits. That is a lot of African country visits. We have
friends there. I personally have friends there, intimate friends. We
have worked on a lot of the military concerns they have, but this is an
area where we have very close friends. So I am going to be singling out
one close friend--but not to the detriment of the rest of them because
we have many close friends, certainly as many as 32 country Presidents
and Prime Ministers to whom we have been very close. But there is a
reason for singling out one particular individual, who is Paul Kagame,
President of Rwanda--two reasons. First, he is going to be coming in as
the Chairman or President of the African Union in the next few months.
He has already been elected. Second, he survived the Rwanda genocide,
which arguably could be the greatest genocide of all time. On January
28, he will become the President or Chairman of the African Union. This
is really nothing short of a miracle. Rwanda is a miracle, and we have
Paul Kagame and the people of Rwanda to thank for it.
In 1994, one of the most atrocious genocides ever perpetrated
occurred in this small East African country. In a period of about 100
days, nearly 1 million Rwandans were slaughtered. As is always the
case, the seeds of genocide were planted many decades before, but when
it finally started in April of 1994, many thousands of Hutus used
machetes and clubs to slaughter Tutsis. Those are two tribes people are
very familiar with. In most cases, it was neighbors killing neighbors,
even some family members.
The horror was unimaginable. Fathers and mothers were forced to watch
their children being hacked to death. One man was forced to beat his
wife to death in order to spare their seven children from being
tortured to death.
Many Rwandans were lucky to survive and remember watching their
parents and siblings being murdered. One individual whose name is
Immaculee wrote a book, ``Left to Tell,'' which gives you an idea of
what happened, the fact that there were people in her own community
trying to kill her. They killed 70 percent--70 percent--of the entire
tribe at that time.
The world just watched as this slaughter took place. They did
nothing. The United Nations had peacekeepers stationed in Rwanda, and
they were ordered to withdraw and leave all the genocide to take place.
The President of the United States was Bill Clinton. He did nothing.
The world just stood by and watched. The horror was stopped only
because of one man. That one man was Paul Kagame. In October 1990, Paul
Kagame led a group of young Rwandan refugees from Uganda whose parents
had fled the country's mass violence three decades before.
You have to keep in mind that the President of Uganda is President
Museveni. President Museveni and President Paul Kagame, both, came from
the bush. They were good friends. He went there to try to save Rwandans
at that time because he saw the genocide coming.
What is even more amazing about Rwanda is their leader and what
happened after that. Rwanda had two very different paths it could have
taken. They could have taken revenge. Paul Kagame could have taken the
strength he had--the new power that he had--and he could have gone
after the other tribe that was there, the Hutus, and he could have
started another genocide of his own. That could have happened. The
other thing he could have done was the path of forgiveness and
reconciliation. This is the path of hard work, where the Tutsis who
survived the genocide would have to learn how to forgive and live
alongside the same Hutus who killed their family members. This is the
path of rebuilding a nation from the ground up so that together they
could have a common future.
We now know which path Rwanda chose. President Kagame led them down
the path of reconciliation. There are a lot of people who helped to
make this happen. One of the individuals, who I happen to be personally
fond of, who is deceased now, was Chuck Colson. Do you remember him? He
spent time in prison. He started a fellowship and was very actively
involved in the reconciliation process. In many cases, the Hutus who
committed genocide against the Tutsi families would seek forgiveness
from that family and then achieve reconciliation by building a home
together for the Tutsi survivors who lived through this. It may seem
like a small gesture, but it allowed the healing and forgiveness
process to work. Together, the Hutus and the Tutsis are rebuilding
their nation as Rwandans working together.
I had one experience that I watched after this happened. My wife
called this to my attention. In Rwanda, they build a certain kind of
basket that is different from that in any other country. After the
reconciliation, there they were--the Hutu and the Tutsi young women--
making these baskets. Then, Paul Kagame worked out a deal with several
department store marketing areas in the United States. Macy's was one
of them. They started selling the baskets. It was a great boon for
them. But, anyway, Paul Kagame should be credited for this amazing
transformation of the nation to a thriving, successful country. This is
paying great dividends.
I was in Rwanda most recently in October. I have been there eight
times. Each time I go, I am surprised by what I see. Let me mention
five things that are unique to Rwanda. First, there is not a piece of
litter anywhere in Rwanda. There is nothing. You can't find any litter.
In fact, the last Saturday of every month, they have a program where
everybody joins together and they pick up every bit of trash and
everything else. That doesn't sound like very much, but you notice the
difference when you are there.
The second thing that is different about them is their
infrastructure. Rwanda is known as the Land of a Thousand Hills. They
don't have any level areas in Rwanda. Not long ago, I remember going
for an hour and a half, between the hill area and the mountain area, on
a road that was perfectly paved. That is one thing you would expect to
see in the United States. There are no potholes--nothing. It was a
highway that you would expect to find anywhere except in Africa. They
are known for this.
Third, the people are hard workers. I mentioned that there aren't any
flat areas there. Every square foot in Rwanda is used to grow
something, from the bottom of the peaks. Everything is there. They are
hard workers. They grow tea, coffee, potatoes, and other crops. They
are all being cultivated across the entire country, and it is all hilly
country. There is no place else where that is actually taking place. It
is hard work. You do it mostly by hand. They are able to feed
themselves and export more valuable crops abroad.
Fourth, it is safe. You wouldn't expect a country that has gone
through the most devastating genocide--maybe in history--to be a safe
place to walk around. Yet it is. You can walk there at nighttime. It is
safer than Washington, DC.
The fifth thing that is unusual about this is that the economy is
booming. Everywhere you look in Rwanda, construction is happening. In
just the last few years, they built new hotels and a convention center,
and they are now working on a new airport to facilitate all the growth
and tourism that is coming there.
These are my observations, but President Kagame's leadership is not
just resulting in visible changes. Numbers back up what I have seen.
Since he became President in 2000, Rwanda has experienced a GDP growth
of 8 percent.
This is interesting because we are, through our tax bill, going to be
increasing our GDP in this country. There is a formula that no one
disagrees with, and that is that for each 1 percent increase in growth
in the GDP, that develops into $1 trillion over a period of 10 years of
increased revenue. That is some of the revenue we are going to be using
as a result of that.
This is not the United States. This is in Africa. It is an 8-percent
GDP

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growth. It is geared toward the poor people. That is why the population
has lifted people out of poverty.
Rwanda has dramatically improved its ease of doing business. The
World Bank recently ranked Rwanda No. 1 for doing business in East
Africa, No. 2 for doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa, and No. 41 in
the world. That is remarkable when you consider that just a matter of 8
years before, they were ranked 150th in the world for doing business.
Now they are No. 41. Today you can start a business and get all the
necessary permits to operate in just a few days.
Rwanda has become a model for gender empowerment. Maybe this is going
a little further than a lot of the people in this country are
comfortable with, but Rwanda's constitution requires that 30 percent of
decision-making positions be awarded to women. Today, it is now 60
percent. So 60 percent of Rwanda's parliamentarians and 40 percent of
its Cabinets are filled by women, including my good friend the Foreign
Minister, Louise Mushikiwabo, and also the Ambassador that many of us
know here because she is in the United States, Ambassador Mathilde
Mukantabana.
Rwanda has facilitated the development of a technology that no one
would expect in Africa. Rwanda enjoys a nationwide fiberoptic
infrastructure that will ensure that 95 percent of its citizens have
access to high-speed 4G internet. Furthermore, it is integrating drone
technology into its healthcare system to ensure that vital supplies,
like blood, can reach patients all over the country.
Rwanda has transformed its healthcare system. Life expectancy is now
64.5 years. In 2000, it was 49 years. That has all taken place in the
last few years. Child mortality rates are down more than two-thirds.
Maternal mortality is down 80 percent. In 2000, there was only 1 doctor
for every 66,000 people. Today there is 1 doctor for every 10,000
people. Between those years, since the genocide has taken place, the
malaria-related deaths plummeted by 85 percent.
When you ask how these things were possible, the World Health
Organization's country director said--and this is a quote, not a quote
by me or someone in this country or by the President:

The main ingredient is visionary leadership. It's about
having a target, saying we want to be there in the future and
understanding obstacles in the way.

That visionary leader is Paul Kagame, and he gets results.
That is the World Health Organization.
Rwanda has established a highly capable and professional military.
President Kagame actually studied in Fort Leavenworth in Kansas as part
of the IMET Program in early 1990s. The IMET Program is a program where
we train people from different countries to be leaders, and, of course,
they develop an allegiance to our country. It is very successful. That
is how this guy got started. He started in the IMET Program. His
military background is very professional. As President, he has required
the same of his forces. In the Rwanda Defence Forces, all military
orders and instructions are issued through a chain of command. Rwanda's
plan is to have a small, well-equipped army of 20,000 soldiers and a
reserve component of 100,000. Their defense strategy is to sustain a
combat-ready force capable of rapidly deploying to meet varying
contingencies both at home and abroad still.
They are delivering. Rwanda is the fifth largest contributor to the
U.N. peacekeeping operations in the world. They currently have close to
5,000 troops deployed in different missions, widely acknowledged as
some of the best performing and most trusted peacekeepers in the world.
Rwanda is also a major participant in the Eastern Africa Standby
Force. That is a battalion of 850 troops and a police contingency of
140 officers who are on standby for contingencies in East Africa. The
countries that have gone together are Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya,
and Rwanda. These are the kinds of things that are exactly in line with
what we should be helping them with and participating in and doing
ourselves in the United States in terms of policy goals for Africa. We
set up a way to help Africans help Africans, to train and assist
regional partners so they will be capable of handling security threats
before they become global crises. With the emergence of their
peacekeeping mission, the regional cooperation--what we hope would
happen--is happening. Paul Kagame is the reason Rwanda is leading the
way. Rwanda is a clear example of what a strong, strategic partner
should look like to the United States.
It is not just me saying this. Rwanda is recognized around the world
for its professional force. In fact, Rwanda's Defense Minister was
among the few leaders who spoke at the United Nations Peacekeeping
Defence Ministerial in November in Vancouver. Because of these amazing
accomplishments, President Kagame is widely viewed as one of the most
influential heads of state in the continent of Africa. Many leaders and
observers praise him and his record. Benedict Oramah, President of the
African Export-Import Bank, said:

[Rwanda] is a country that was all but written off some two
decades ago. But just like the phoenix that died and arose
from its ashes, it emerges to become the shiniest star on the
continent. The shiniest in terms of governance, in terms of
the can-do spirit, doing those things that nobody ever
thought was possible.

Again, that is the African Export-Import Bank talking about Paul
Kagame.
The head of the World Health Organization's Africa department said:

I want to recognize [Rwanda's] remarkable leadership--its
creativity, tenacity and resolve--which have delivered
significant progress in advancing health and development for
the benefit of all your people. Your achievements in such a
short space of time are truly remarkable.

That is the World Health Organization. He is talking about Rwanda,
and he is talking specifically about the President.
Some of you may remember former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo,
who came in after the person who was considered one of the great
terrorists of all time, at that time, Sani Abacha. He came in to reform
the leadership in Nigeria. His statement was: ``Rwanda has made
difficult trade-offs, but as an African leader, I tell you that I would
make the same trade-offs.''

Yet his influence is recognized more clearly not by what people have
said about him but by what his peers have asked him to do.
In July of 2016, Kagame was selected by his peers to lead the effort
to reform the African Union to make it more effective. He did not take
this opportunity to raise his own profile, as most people would do;
rather, he used it to build consensus and cast a vision for a future
Africa that is no longer reliant on aid from the outside world. This is
very significant because when you talk to people in the street about
Africa and the things we do with Africa, the first thing they say is
that Africa is always having to be supported by us, that we are pouring
money into Africa and they are not able to do things on their own.
This was the first time he had made this statement--that Africa
should no longer be reliant on aid from outside nations. Within months,
he developed a reform package that was focused on four categories. This
is significant.
The first one is that the African Union has to be focused on key
priorities with a continental scope as opposed to a regional. This is
something that has been happening for a long time, but they are moving
from regional to starting to look after their entire continent. He
wants the AU to focus on fewer but bigger issues that affect everyone
on the continent.
The second thing is that the AU must be connected with its citizens.
Paul Kagame envisions doing this by establishing women and youth
quotas, which I just mentioned a minute ago, across the institutions
and by identifying appropriate ways and means to ensure that the
private sector, Parliament, civil society, and citizens are
participating in the process. He also wants to make the Africa passport
available to all citizens so as to allow the free flow of people among
the nation-states.
The third thing is that the business of the AU must be managed
effectively and efficiently with accountability, called the ``Rwanda
way.''
The fourth thing is to charge the member-states with providing all of
the necessary funding to operate the African Union without having
assistance from outside donors.
Have you ever heard that before from anybody, let alone Africa? Yet
that is what he said. He envisions doing this

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by each African country's imposing a 0.2-percent tariff on eligible
imports. While not all observers agree, I admire this vision for each
seeking its way to ungrip itself from the assistance of other nations
to fund its governmental activities. That was his plan.
What cemented his status as an influential power broker in Africa was
that at the AU's next meeting, which was January of 2017, his peers at
the AU--the African Union--affirmed the recommendations and charged him
with actually implementing them. Once again, African leaders
unanimously decided to trust Kagame. They chose him as the best leader
to put reforms into action. So far, a number of the proposals have
already been implemented.
About half of the nation-states have already implemented the most
difficult part, which is passing upon themselves a 0.2-percent import
tariff and forwarding the proceeds to the African Union. They were
paying for all of these things that were happening--that were proposed
by Kagame--in the African Union. They actually have what we call real
skin in the game. More and more nations are getting on board, and
Rwanda is leading the way.
To further cement his standing and influence, in July of 2017, Kagame
was selected by his peers to chair the African Union in 2018, and here
it is in 2018. So it is going to be happening. With genocide, Rwanda
has a dark history, but because they chose the path of forgiveness and
reconciliation instead of revenge, President Kagame has had and has
used his national platform to be a nation of friendship and
reconciliation between nations--nations that normally don't like each
other, nations that normally are fighting against each other. Let's
take a look at what he has actually done.
First, he and the State of Israel have had a similar past as both
having victims of genocide. We all know that. Many African nations--
about half of them--are Muslim-majority countries.
President Kagame has used his influence in the region to facilitate
Israel's desire to reengage in Africa. Prime Minister Netanyahu of
Israel referred to Rwanda as the indispensable bridge on which Israel
marched to return to Africa. In just the last 2 years, Prime Minister
Netanyahu has been welcomed in several of the African capitals. I was
with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and I can tell you that he was one who
was so impressed with the work that has been done by Paul Kagame that
he is able to invest himself in that continent of Africa, which he was
never able to do before.
At the United Nations, Rwanda has put itself at risk of widespread
criticism in order to stand up for what is right. In 2014, Rwanda
rotated onto the U.N. Security Council. While there, Rwanda abstained
from an anti-Israel resolution so typical of the United Nations. It is
always against Israel. When he did this, Rwanda blocked it from moving
forward and prevented the United States from having to veto it. In this
Chamber, we remember that. I remember the fact that we didn't want to
be in a position to veto it, but what they were doing was totally
unfair. We had one guy who was courageous enough to do it; he was Paul
Kagame from Rwanda.
More recently, Rwanda has been one of the few nations not to vote
against the United States or condemn our decision to move our Israeli
Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Rwanda is willing to take a stand for what is right. It keeps its
word. It does not shake with fear at the possibility of intimidation.

Kagame has also brought about the restoration of broken relationships
with Africa. In 2016, he led the push to invite Morocco back into the
African Union. This is an issue that a lot of people are concerned
with. All the way back to the Bush administration, our Secretary of
State at that time, Jim Baker, was trying his best to undo the damage
that was done by Morocco to Western Sahara. Three decades ago, Western
Sahara was taken from its homeland and put out in the middle of nowhere
in the desert. I have been there several times. I wonder how a person
can live out there.
The problem was that Morocco was very rich, and Western Sahara was
very poor. I testified before a House committee not too long ago, and I
commented that Morocco has hired the most expensive lobbyists who are
in Washington. Obviously, he gets his way on things that other people
don't.
Anyway, one of the problems was, because of the advantage that it has
had, it has not been willing to come to the table. One of the reasons
is that Morocco has been the only country to be considered an African
country that is not part of the African Union. So what did Paul Kagame
do? He brought them into the African Union. He was able to convince
both the African Union and Morocco to allow Morocco to join so that
they could get together and get something done. Hopefully, he is on the
road to trying to end three decades of trauma that has taken place out
in the desert.
Has this effort soured our relations with Kagame? No. In fact, the
impact has been just the opposite. Earlier this month, former German
President Horst Kohler, the U.N. envoy for resolving the Western
Sahara-Morocco dispute, traveled to Kigali to appeal for Kagame's help
to resolve the situation. The U.N. recognizes Kagame's bringing Morocco
into the African Union as an important step in resolving the problem of
the Western Sahara.
It is not just in Morocco that Kagame has made a difference. Let's
look at others.
South Sudan is another problem. The Sudan and South Sudan were the
same country. South Sudan had been trying to gain its independence. It
finally did gain its independence, and we thought everything would be
fine when that happened. Unfortunately, that started a civil war in
South Sudan. This is something that has been going on now for 3 years,
and Paul Kagame is neck deep in helping resolve that conflict as well.
Rwanda has peacekeeping troops in both countries, and the Sudanese and
the South Sudanese forces do not target but they protect Rwanda. So we
have two countries that are warring against each other, and we have
Rwanda going in to try to resolve it. They both welcome Rwanda, and
they trust Rwanda's military because they trust Kagame.
It is tempting to think that Rwanda is a small country in the middle
of nowhere that does not have a lot of influence, but that would be a
mistake. Because of the results Kagame has been able to secure for his
people and because of the personal relationships he has developed,
Rwanda is among one of the most influential countries in Africa,
considering the fact that when Kagame was inaugurated to his third
term, no fewer than 22 heads of state from across Africa attended the
festivities. That has never been done before--22 countries
participating in the inauguration of a President. They came for Paul
Kagame. The leaders of African nations that normally fight with each
other were actually seen embracing one another live on TV. That just
doesn't happen for no reason; that happens because they all trust and
admire Paul Kagame.
With all of this, it is no wonder that African leaders are
increasingly looking to Rwanda and Kagame for a vision of how to move
forward into the future. According to one reporter, the ``Rwanda
model'' is becoming a hallmark phrase in Africa.
Simon Allison writes: ``In Africa's . . . corridors of power--in the
boardrooms of its banks, in closed-door Cabinet meetings, in donor
discussions and interminable governance conferences--it is repeated
like a mantra: `The Rwanda model. The Rwanda model. The Rwanda model.'
''
Kagame is advancing a vision of African leadership that is no longer
reliant on the aid of outsiders--a total reversal. He wants to move his
country and the whole continent away from dependence on foreign aid to
bustling free market economies that enable the people to take care of
themselves. In fact, he recently complained to his fellow peers at an
African security summit meeting that they have relied too much on the
international community to deal with their problems.
This is a quote from him: ``A major pillar of institutional reform of
the AU is a more focused and assertive Africa'' that is focused on
solving its own problems. He said, ``We must take responsibility for
ourselves, which doesn't exclude partners but they add to our
efforts.'' He has clearly done that. That is the main thing in all the
reforms we have talked about, is to get Africa out of that dependency
mode, and he is actually doing it.

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Last March, while speaking in London at the Wall Street Journal's
Investing in Africa Conference, Kagame said, ``I want to see Africa get
its act together'' so it is not reliant on Western intervention in its
affairs. It is the same thing over and over again. He sees a future
Africa that is more autonomous and capable of taking care of itself and
taking care of its problems. It is kind of a vision that his peers are
gathering around.
We shouldn't misunderstand. Kagame is not saying that Africa should
have no involvement with the United States or the West--far from it.
What he wants is to have a peer-to-peer relationship instead of a
donor-based relationship. He wants legitimate business relations
between customers and suppliers, to join together African businesses
and other international companies, including those in the United
States.
In Kagame's vision for a new Africa, African nations will have
cooperation on security and on terrorism and on trade agreements with
their friends, partners, and allies. He wants to end the days of
reliance upon foreign governments to solve their problems. See, there
it is again.
Many leaders in Africa have desired this kind of a change, but few
have had the position, the influence, or the clarity of focus to
articulate with the kind of passion that is persuasive. It is only had
by Paul Kagame. There are far fewer who have this kind of record of
improving the lives of their own people in the way he has.
This is exactly the kind of partnership that the United States should
have with our friends and allies in Africa--should have but that we
don't have at the present time. For too long, the United States has had
the wrong policy toward Africa and African nations, and most Americans
still think there is only 1 country on the continent of Africa rather
than 54 independent states that make it up.
U.S. policy toward Africa should be different. U.S. policy should be
a partnership that focuses on helping Africans help Africans with three
key components: security, trade, and diplomacy.
The security goals of the United States in Africa should be focused
on training and equipping key partners to be capable of addressing
regional and continental terrorist threats that could ultimately affect
the United States and to be capable of addressing regional security
threats that develop in regions so that the U.S. military does not have
to engage, so that it can do it instead of needing our involvement.
This is AFRICOM's goal. AFRICOM is something that is fairly new. We
once were a part of three different commands--the Central Command, the
Pacific Command, and the European Command. Now we have AFRICOM as its
own command, which was designed for that express purpose. We are
increasingly meeting these goals and objectives.
The second thing is that our trade focus in Africa should be on
developing free trade agreements with African nations so that they have
a reciprocal, peer relationship with our African trading
partners. Fortunately, this is already the statutory policy of the
United States, but it is not working that way. In 2015, a 10-year
extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act was signed into
law. This is an appropriate policy for the near term, but long term it
is not because we need to have the same kind of access to African
nations as we provide to them. In this law, it explicitly states that
the policy of the United States is to pursue free-trade agreements with
African nations, but it doesn't back it up with anything.

In my travels to Africa, I have seen many countries are ready for
free-trade agreements, but the bureaucracies over here in the United
States don't agree. They don't think they are ready. So I introduced
the African Free Trade Initiative Act, which does two things.
First, it requires a U.S. Trade Representative to articulate what
African countries need to do to get ready for trade agreements with the
United States. It is one thing for people over here or people who are
desiring trade and not desiring trade to say: Well, Africa is not
ready. What we are doing with this legislation is saying: We need to
know from our Trade Representative what they need to do so they could
be a part--they can get skin in their own game.
Second, it requires the U.S. Trade Representative to coordinate with
the Millennium Challenge Corporation and USAID so their aid dollars are
focused on projects that will help prepare them for free-trade
agreements with us. Now these provisions have passed and are signed
into law so we are making that headway.
The bureaucracies have all the tools they need, but they aren't
willing to use them because they don't take Africa seriously, they
don't view them as peers, and they look down on them because they are
small, but this is a shame because the economies in Africa are growing
faster than any other region in the world.
Then there is diplomacy. Our diplomatic focus in Africa should be
focused on building relationships and alignments with countries we can
trust, that share our values and help us influence the rest of the
continent and the world to be favorable to the United States. For too
long, we have ridden on a high horse through Africa. We have been quick
to chide them for mistakes they have made, and we have been slow or
completely negligent in recognizing their accomplishments.
Take Rwanda as an example. I have already articulated the miracle
they have experienced, but when the people of Rwanda decided to amend
their Constitution to allow President Kagame to run for an additional
term, the Obama administration condemned them. They publicly shamed
Kagame for the country's actions and doubled down when he ran for
reelection. That administration did not have a category for the
democratic process that was different from ours. They just didn't have
the category for a new nation needing help, and so they were not
helpful to them. That administration also failed to recognize the
amazing progress Rwanda has made to improve their country and the
health and education of their people, nor did they recognize the superb
security assistance Rwanda provides in the region, and our relationship
with Rwanda was negatively impacted by the Obama administration. We
have become known as a condescending and unreliable partner in Africa.
If we do not catch up and change our approach, our friends will find
new partners, and we will be left alone.
It is no secret how engaged China is on the continent. I think we all
know that. Every time you travel through Africa, they say: Well, the
United States tells you what you need, but we build what you need. Now,
they don't do it with African labor and all that, but they have a
reason for doing this. They understand how important Africa is going to
be in the coming decades so they are treating African nations
accordingly, as peers, as we should be doing.
China has surpassed the United States as Africa's largest trading
partner. We have been their largest trading partner for many years, but
now that has changed and China has taken over. China funded the
construction of the African Union's headquarters in Ethiopia. Their aid
dollars go toward projects that are actually needed, and the projects
happen much faster than compared to ours. The United States is falling
behind and at great risk.
Between now and 2030, the economies of African nations are expected
to grow by an average of 5 percent a year, meaning the total size of
their economies will nearly double in that time. By 2025, the continent
will have a combined GDP of over $2.5 trillion and $1.4 trillion of
that--that is more than half of that--will be consumer spending.
Increasingly, Africa's growing middle class will continue to become
highly attractive in the business world. By 2034, Africa is expected to
have the world's largest working age population of 1.1 billion people,
which could lead to a low-cost labor economic boom similar to what was
experienced in East Asia after World War II. Our National Security
Council has noted that these demographic and economic shifts will have
enormous political consequences and that Africa's role in rural
politics will dramatically change because of them.
Implementing this policy will benefit our people, give us greater
security, give us a stronger economy, and it will add to our influence
in the world in the long run. These things we need to do, and we are
not doing them now. So I

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am encouraging our administration to do it. We need to get these
things. To implement this policy effectively, we must cultivate
critical relations of influence with our like-minded friends in Africa.
In the Middle East, we have Israel. In Europe, we have Great Britain.
In Africa, we have Rwanda and Paul Kagame.
So it is time to catch up. President Paul Kagame will soon be sworn
in as the Chairman of the African Union. In him, we have a visionary
leader who has accomplished great things for his country. He has also
established himself as a highly influential figure among African heads
of State because he has set a bold vision for the future of Africa that
is autonomous, self-sufficient, and open for business. This vision is
100 percent complimentary to what the U.S. policy should be in Africa.
In recognizing this, it is my hope the Trump administration will
embrace him and Rwanda as the American friends they are. We need to
bring Rwanda close so we can work cooperatively with them to accomplish
our shared goal. Rwanda and America are like-minded friends, and we
should treat them accordingly.
Let me conclude with a personal story that expands a little bit on
this. I had an experience in 2000. In 2000, I was called by a friend in
Rwanda, and his name is Charles Murigande. He called up and he said--
there is a program I have been involved in and others have been
involved in, where we encourage them to have like we have in the U.S.
Senate. We have weekly Prayer Breakfasts every Wednesday, and we
encourage them to do the same thing. He called me up, and he said: We
would like to have our first National Prayer Breakfast in Rwanda. Will
you come over and speak? So I did.
Well, 14 years later--this is quite a coincidence--in 2014, we were
on another trip and planned to land in Burundi before going to
Ethiopia, but then, for security reasons, we weren't able to land in
Burundi so we stopped in Rwanda instead. Without any warning--now, keep
in mind, Rwanda didn't know we were going to be there. We didn't know
we were going to be there. There was no warning whatsoever, but when we
got there, as a coincidence, the next day they were having their 14th
annual Prayer Breakfast. They assumed, since I was their speaker at
their first Prayer Breakfast 14 years before, I was there to give a
speech, and so I did. I say this because Paul Kagame, 14 years before
that happened and every year since then and then every year since this
took place, was then leading both Prayer Breakfasts. So in addition to
all of the virtues of Paul Kagame that I have been talking about--
perhaps too long--he is a strong man of faith, and it doesn't get any
better than that.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Johnson). The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to
15 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.