The President of the Republic, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi took stock at the halfway point of his diplomatic action focused on the opening of the DRC to the world for a win-win partnership. He lifted a veil of sails on this personal assessment in his message to the Nation on the occasion of the commemoration of the 59th anniversary of the accession of the DRC to national and international sovereignty.
These include the reopening of the Schengen House, the introduction of diplomatic lunches with ambassadors accredited in the DRC, the awareness of neighboring countries and the harmonization of views on the Congolese vision focused on the process towards integration under regional integration prior to continental integration, the IMF’s Article IV assessment of the Congolese economy as a prelude to the resumption of the formal program with the Bretton Woods institutions and the AfDB’s commitment to national integration projects in the DRC.
Zoom Eco offers you, below, the excerpt of his message:
Finally, with regard to Diplomacy and regional cooperation as soon as I took office, I reopened the Schengen House to normalize our relations with the European Union, which is a traditional partner of our country.
I organized a first diplomatic lunch, I decided to exchange regularly with all accredited ambassadors in my country. It is in this context that I received last February all the ambassadors to share with them my vision in foreign policy.
In this same context, I wanted to set up « diplomatic lunches », the first of which was held with the ambassadors of the European Union and Canada. This exercise will continue with ambassadors from other countries.
In this area, my policy will be that of opening up to the world in a win-win partnership.
As for regional cooperation, the geographical position of my country, located at the crossroads of several subregional organizations, gives it a major role in African integration advocated by all the Heads of State grouped within the African Union.
As African integration is the ultimate goal, I have started trips to the region to share this idea with my peers. This approach consists in first achieving integration at the level of each sub-region, before its consolidation at the continental level.
It is in this context that my visits have already allowed me to exchange with the Heads of State of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola, and Congo. as far as our neighbors are concerned.
To this list are added my fruitful meetings with the Heads of State of Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
With each other we concluded that we will not achieve this goal of African integration and the development of our continent, if we do not fight fiercely against insecurity and the various conflicts that destabilize Africa.
This is only possible through the construction of transnational infrastructures: roads, railways, airways, waterways and seaways and the elimination of customs barriers.
Still on this chapter of diplomacy, I would also like to highlight my last visit to Washington where I had discussions with the Director General of the International Monetary Fund. These discussions led to a mission of this institution in Kinshasa under Article 4. The report of this mission augurs the resumption of programs with the IMF, which is good for the economy of my country.
With the African Development Bank, I would like to thank the President of this institution, my brother Akinwumi Adesina. During our discussions, he clearly indicated his satisfaction with the reorganization of the macroeconomic framework and also promised his institution’s support for the different projects in my country.
I would also like to say that at the World Bank, I just received in Lubumbashi, the vice-president of this international financial institution with whom we shared common views on the resumption of their programs in the DRC.
