WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) -Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda agreed an economic pact in Washington on Friday, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to implement a peace deal and spur Western investment in the region.
Technical teams from the delegations initialed the regional economic integration framework on Friday, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It is due to be signed by heads of state during a visit to the White House, but the date for that visit is unclear. The two presidents had been tentatively expected to meet on November 13, but sources said the date was never confirmed.
Two of the sources said the final text makes clear the framework will only become active after the satisfactory completion of a previous agreement, which includes the withdrawal of Rwandan troops from eastern Congo and operations to eliminate the threat from Congo-based armed group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
“Meaningful economic integration is impossible without a secure and stable environment,” one of the sources said.
Representatives from Congo, Rwanda and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Last month, the parties failed to sign the economic deal as expected, a setback in Trump‘s ambitious bid to broker peace and draw billions of dollars of Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals.
Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers in June signed a peace deal in Washington, which included a pledge to implement a 2024 agreement that said Rwanda would lift its defensive measures in eastern Congo within 90 days.
Congolese military operations targeting the FDLR, a Congo-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda’s former army and militias that carried out the 1994 genocide, are meant to conclude over the same timeframe.
Reuters reported in September that Rwanda and Congo would begin implementing the security measures agreed under the deal on October 1, later than initially agreed.
Kinshasa and Kigali were also meant to launch the regional economic integration framework within 90 days, the Washington agreement said. That deadline fell at the end of September.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington and Sonia Rolley in Paris, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
