Reuters
Source: Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump gathered the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda to sign a peace deal in Washington on Thursday even as fighting continued in their war-scarred region.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi affirmed commitments to an economic integration compact agreed last month, and to a U.S.-brokered peace deal reached in June. They were also due to sign an agreement on critical minerals.
The signing handed Trump the latest in a series of made-for-television diplomatic victories, in this case one at odds with the bloody situation on the ground. Washington wants access to a spectrum of natural resources in Congo and is scrambling globally to counter China’s dominance in critical minerals.
“We’re settling a war that’s been going on for decades,” Trump said. “They spent a lot of time killing each other, and now they’re going to spend a lot of time hugging, holding hands, and taking advantage of the United States of America economically – like every other country does.”
Sitting before a “Delivering Peace” backdrop at a peace institute that his administration unofficially renamed after Trump, the African leaders signed and exchanged documents with the U.S. president.
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