[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

[[Page S455]]

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

[[Page S456]]

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.

[[Page S457]]

  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.