DRC foreign minister confirms ongoing talks with US on minerals – The Mail & Guardian

The foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner. (Photo: UNE.CD)

The foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, on Thursday confirmed that her government remained in talks with the United States on access to strategic minerals but said no agreement has been concluded.

Wagner sought to downplay the negotiations as a normal part of engagement with the new administration in Washington to explore potential avenues of cooperation.

She did not refer to indications that Kinshasa is seeking to offer the US access to its mineral resources in return for military assistance against a Rwandan-backed insurgency, which has seen M23 militia seize control of swathes of the Kivu provinces in eastern DRC.

“We find ourselves in a situation where there is a new incoming administration and it is totally normal that in such a situation you review partnerships, you review issues that you have been working on,” Wagner said after a meeting with her South African counterpart Ronald Lamola in Pretoria.

“The specific issue of minerals, of course it garners a lot of attention because this is a commodity that is so key and so essential to so many of the industrial and technological barriers that we face as a world.”

She said although mineral exploration featured in the DRC’s talks with many of its allies, “this has been a bit amplified for the media because it is an incoming administration in the United States”.

“We engage in the same spirit of trying to build partnerships and trying to attract investment to our country in a way that benefits our country, that benefits our local market and that benefits our communities. 

“So these are the conversations that are ongoing with the United States of America; they have not been completed yet and it is a process, just as it is a process that we have with other countries.”

DRC President Felix Thisikedi raised the prospect of giving the US and Europe a stake in his country’s vast mineral wealth in an interview with the New York Times last month, in which he compared the conflict in his country with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He told the newspaper that the Trump administration had shown interest in an agreement that could ensure a steady, direct flow of rare minerals.

In the same interview, Tshisekedi reiterated his reluctance to negotiate with the M23, saying again that he would rather speak directly to Kigali, whom he accuses of backing the rebels to plunder the DRC’s mineral resources.

“I don’t want to negotiate with M23,” he said. “M23 is an empty shell.”

This stance has been a source of frustration for fellow African leaders trying to broker a peace agreement between all sides in conflict in eastern DRC. 

This included South Africa, which lost 14 soldiers in late January as the rebels advanced on Goma, the capital of North Kivu. The soldiers were part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (SAMIDRC), whose peacekeeping mandate was terminated earlier this month. 

On Thursday Wagner thanked South Africa for its contribution, saying the DRC owed the country a vast debt of gratitude and that the SADC’s decision to withdraw was legitimate.

“We are also cognisant of the fact that these were extremely difficult conditions under which troop-contributing countries were put and that they continued to persist, in some cases in violation of international law.”

She said her talks with Lamola had touched on the need for a co-ordinated, gradual withdrawal of the SADC troops. 

Lamola said there was no truth in suggestions that the withdrawal had seen SADC abandon the war-torn country.

“We have not abandoned the DRC, either as South Africa or as SADC,” he said.

“We, as South Africa, continue to work with the DRC on a bilateral level and this engagement here today is testament to that, that we continue to deepen our relations.”

South Africa has repeatedly pressed the DRC to participate in direct talks with the M23.

Asked about Thisekedi’s long–held reservations about doing so, Wagner said Kinshasa took issue with the M23 for claiming grievances about the protection of minority rights as a pretext for a war driven by Rwandese military support.

“The issue that we have with the M23 is a claim that it represents a section of the Congolese population that according to the M23 is marginalised.”

Wagner said as a nation of more than 450 ethnic groups, the DRC prided itself on integration.

“Actually what you are is Congolese from the beginning to the end and we have always sought this through policy that seeks to be inclusive. Now if there is a perception of neglect or treatment that is not as favourable as the treatment that others receive, then there are avenues and ways to express that.

“Maybe a legitimate issue of inclusion is being instrumentalised for gains that do not seek inclusion or protection of these minorities. 

“There are very clear and loud voices in the DRC that say very clearly: ‘We are Banyamulenge and we did not ask Rwanda to come here.’ So it is of a certain complexity when an issue of a community is used as a pretext to violate international law.”

She noted that Tshisikedi had agreed to meet the M23 in Luanda, at the invitation of Angolan President Joao Lourenço, then the African Union mediator for the DRC. 

The M23 agreed to the meeting but reneged after the European Union imposed sanctions on its leader and on Rwandan army commanders.

“We made the important and historical choice to show up,” adding that, similarly, Tshisikedi agreed to meet Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Luanda in December.

“When it comes to peace, when it comes to our people, we show up. But the other side also has to show up.” 

Angola on Monday announced that it was withdrawing from its mandate as mediator on the conflict.

Tshisikedi again met Kagame last week for ceasefire talks hosted by Qatar.

Asked why Qatar and Turkey were interested in helping to negotiate an end to the war, Wagner said she did not wish to speculate.

“I believe that over 6 000 dead civilians is a reason enough to want to mediate and, for me, I will take that as a reason, their motivation to see an end to unnecessary human suffering is for me reason enough and I will not go further.”