President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and First Lady Fazna Ahmed have attended the Official Welcome Reception and State Dinner hosted by the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and First Lady Jeannette Kagame in honour of the visiting high-level delegates.

The Rwandan President hosted the Official Welcome Reception and State Dinner at the "Kigali Convention Centre"

The President is currently visiting Rwanda to attend the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2022. First Lady Fazna Ahmed and a high-level delegation are accompanying the President on this trip.

CHOGM brings delegates from 54 nations from Africa, the Caribbean and Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, seeking to strengthen multilateral cooperation, explore new opportunities, and address shared challenges facing future generations.

The CHOGM 2022 theme is "Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming".

By attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting President Solih is demonstrating his administration’s continued commitment to cooperate with the international fora on shared goals such as democracy, peace, and prosperity. It also reflects participation by the Maldives in the international community to strengthen cooperation on protection of the environment , see improvement in the growth of trade, support democracy , education and gender equality.

President Solih also took this as a great opportunity to promote the voice of the small island states on a global platform.

The Maldives initially joined the Commonwealth of Nations on July 9, 1982, but withdrew membership on October 13, 2016. The Commonwealth accepted the application by Maldives for re-admission on February 1, 2020, welcoming it as the 54th member .Hence one of the key inaugural pledges of President Solih was fulfilled.

CHOGM, held every two years, was due to take place in June 2020 but was postponed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic. CHOGM 2022 is the first to be held since the Maldives re joined the network. The Commonwealth comprises of 54 countries of which 25 are small island developing states .The 54 member countries represent 2.5 million people .