Rwandan President Paul Kagame meets Macron ahead of vivatech

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Rwandan President Paul Kagame and several tech CEOs, at the Elysee palace in Paris on Wednesday ahead of the Vivatech conference.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella were among those invited to have lunch to discuss opportunities and commitments from both companies and the French government.

“Thanks for being here, but as you know in this quarter, there’s no free lunch. So I expect from you, some commitments, common commitments. The first one is to be direct and open. I mean, I will be very direct and open, that’s what I expect from you. Let’s discuss very directly about the situation, what we can do. Second, ambition. You have a lot of ambition for your business, I have a lot of ambition for this country, Rwandan president Paul Kagame has a lot of ambition for his country and Africa. And I think its very important to have direct discussion to see how we can make more, have better innovation, and more business in our countries to be creative, it’s good for our people”, Macron said.

Influential political figures were also present, with former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and UNESCO Secretary General, Audrey Azoulay, posing for a family photo alongisde the tech executives.

Vivatech is a three-day event that hopes to foster similar innovation through linking new entrepeneurs and major business personalities.

Reuters