Rwanda and Congo agree on outline for economic framework as part of peace deal
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday agreed on an outline for the regional economic integration framework, according to the U.S. State Department, as the two countries take steps toward delivering on a peace deal signed in Washington in June.
The tenets agreed on Friday summarize the framework, which includes elements of cooperation on energy, infrastructure, mineral supply chains, national parks and public health, the State Department said in a statement.
Rwanda and Congo signed a peace deal in Washington in June at talks held by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which aims to stop fighting and attract billions of dollars of Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals.
As part of the deal, Kinshasa and Kigali agreed to launch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days, the agreement said.
The framework is planned to be signed at a meeting of heads of state at the White House. No date has been set yet for that meeting, the source said.
In the Friday statement, Rwanda and Congo affirmed that each country has “full, sovereign control” over the exploitation, processing and export of its natural resources and recognized the importance of developing mineral processing and transformation capacity within each country, according to a copy seen by the Reuters news agency.
