President Paul Kagame has called on the international community to fundamentally change its approach to global conflicts, urging leaders to focus on addressing their underlying causes rather than merely managing them through temporary measures.
Speaking at the 2025 Astana International Forum in Kazakhstan, Kagame warned that the prevailing model of conflict mediation, dominated by ceasefires and short-term diplomacy, has consistently failed to deliver lasting peace.
President Paul Kagame
“There is more attention paid to managing conflicts rather than addressing the root causes,” Kagame told a packed plenary session, which included Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, North Macedonian President Gordana Davukova, and other global dignitaries.
“You can cool down the situation and a few months, a few years later, you have the same crisis getting worse or others emerging. So, you don’t just manage conflicts. You address the root causes.”
He pointed to longstanding unresolved issues and vested interests as the silent drivers of instability in various regions, including Africa, where conflicts continue to rage in Sudan and in Rwanda’s neighbour, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where M23 rebels have in recent months captured large swathes of territory.
In the eastern DRC, Kagame has in the past accused the government of failing to address the conflict rooted in colonial border drawing, which has led to the continued marginalisation of Kinyarwanda-speaking communities, some of whom have taken up arms to demand inclusivity.
Beyond the Great Lakes region, Kagame’s message struck a chord in a year marked by multiple conflicts, including wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
The Astana International Forum, themed Connecting Minds, Shaping the Future, brought together over 5,000 global participants to tackle interlinked global crises—from climate and energy to geopolitical tensions and economic resilience.
During the plenary session, President Kagame also elaborated on Rwanda’s post-1994 Genocide against the Tutsi recovery journey, highlighting the importance of resilience and homegrown solutions.
“We learned from our history when genocide was taking place and the rest of the world looked the other way,” he said. “We began putting our pieces together, creating that level of trust that gave us an opportunity to build institutions accountable to our people’s needs.”
While acknowledging the importance of external support, Kagame stressed that such aid is only effective when coupled with strong domestic commitment.
“We got support from a number of friends and partners, but this would not have been helpful, would not have had an impact if we were not standing together ourselves and doing our part from within,” he remarked.
Kagame stressed that this principle applies across the board, not just for small or developing nations, but for all countries seeking to secure their futures in an increasingly volatile world.
The president also turned a critical eye to the global financial architecture, calling it both
“structurally flawed and politically biased.”
He argued that developing nations continue to suffer from outdated risk assessments and unequal enforcement of international financial rules, which restrict access to capital and hinder development.
“There has been much talk of reforming the global financial architecture… But the problem is not just structural, it is political,” Kagame said.
He called for renewed momentum in South-South cooperation, particularly between Africa and Central Asia, as a strategic complement, not an alternative, to global engagement.
Speaking at the 2025 Astana International Forum in Kazakhstan, Kagame warned that the prevailing model of conflict mediation, dominated by ceasefires and short-term diplomacy, has consistently failed to deliver lasting peace.
The Astana International Forum, themed Connecting Minds, Shaping the Future, brought together over 5,000 global participants to tackle interlinked global crises—from climate and energy to geopolitical tensions and economic resilience.
