Israel has opened its first embassy in Rwanda as the two countries move to cement economic and political ties.

The new Israel Ambassador to Rwanda, Mr Ron Adam, presented his credentials to President Paul Kagame on Friday.

“Israel shares a lot of similarities with Rwanda and I am excited to be my first country’s representative here," he told journalists shortly after meeting the President.

Mr Adam pledged his country will support agriculture and cyber-security.

In 2016, on the first trip to Africa by an Israeli premier in nearly 30 years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Rwanda where he held bilateral talks with President Kagame and visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. The other countries he visited are Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia.

The two leaders also met in Kenya in November 2017 on the sidelines of the inauguration of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s second term in office, where Mr Netanyahu announced plans to open an embassy in Kigali.

In January this year, Rwanda and Israel signed a bilateral air service agreement (Basa) to open direct flights to and from Kigali and Tel Aviv.

Before his new appointment, Mr Adam served as a special envoy on Energy and as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) coordinator at the Israeli ministry of Foreign Affairs.

President Kagame also received letters of credence from 12 other newly envoys among them Saudi Arabia's ambassador Abdullah Fahd Ali Alkahtani, who is the Kingdom's first time representative in Rwanda.

The others are Mozambique, Benin, Ghana, Poland, Thailand, New Zealand, Canada, Vietnam, Turkey, Portugal and Sri Lanka.

The President hosted the diplomats to a luncheon where he highlighted Rwanda's openness to create a conducive investment environment.

“We were pleased to nurture an ever more conducive environment for business (in 2018); we were recognised in the annual World Bank's Doing Business Report. Rwanda moved up twelve places from the previous year and now ranks 29th in the world — the second in Africa. Next year we will be number one,” Mr Kagame said.