In exchange for exclusive access to vital mineral resources and infrastructure projects, Kinshasa expects the United States to undertake the training and equipping of the Congolese armed forces and to provide direct support in ensuring the country’s security.
Given the prevalence of Chinese companies in the country’s mining industry (they account for between 75 and 80 percent of all enterprises in this sector, particularly in copper and cobalt extraction), cooperation with the US, as Foreign Affairs pinpoints, will allow Tshisekedi to “get rid of excessive dependence on Beijing and strengthen ties with the West,” which is compatible with American interests.
In return, the Americans will gain access to military bases “for protecting the DRC’s strategic resources.”
It is important to note here that Kinshasa could not neglect the statement made earlier this year, in January, by the US Department of Defense’s Technical Director for Strategic and Critical Minerals, Adam Burstein, that the United States intends to “begin stockpiling” the resources to reduce the risk of supply chain disruptions from China, which dominates this field.
The DRC Government Delegation’s Visit to Washington
Ultimately, a visit by a DRC government delegation to Washington took place at the end of February, mediated by American lobbyists. The Congolese representatives were received at the US Department of Defense, the State Department, and the US Department of Commerce.
The agenda of meetings in these departments, according to the British Climate Home News, focused on strengthening “military and investment ties”, as well as “arranging a potential meeting” between Félix Tshisekedi and President Donald Trump, alongside developing a joint media strategy on how to present Kinshasa’s policies on the global stage.
Following the contacts with representatives of the American administration in general, the DRC president made the following remark to Fox News: “Both sides are moving forward quite quickly… “I believe,” Tshisekedi emphasized, “that the US can use its leverage, including sanctions, to curb the activities of armed groups on DRC territory.”
Is It All Determined by Family Ties?
A significant event in US-Congolese relations was the tour of Massad Boulos, appointed as the US State Department’s Senior Advisor for African Affairs, in the first week of April around the DRC, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda. The purpose, as stated in a US State Department release, was to meet the heads of these states, as well as business community representatives, to discuss “advancing US private investment into the region, as well as promoting sustainable peace in eastern DRC”.
It is significant to pay attention to the fact that on April 2, on the eve of his arrival in Kinshasa, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi pardoned three Americans who were among the 37 conspirators sentenced to death for their involvement in last May’s failed coup d’état, sentencing them to life imprisonment instead.
The New York Sun evaluated this Kinshasa’s move as an attempt to create a more favourable environment for concluding an agreement with Washington on the joint development of Congolese mineral resources in exchange for protection from the numerous armed groups engaged in their plunder.
During his stay in Kinshasa, Massad Boulos held talks with President Tshisekedi, which left him greatly satisfied with the enormous potential of relations between the two countries for development, especially in the mining industry, with the US intending to invest billions of dollars into it.
The very fact that this complex, perennial issue has been entrusted to Massad Boulos, not a career diplomat with experience, but a businessman of Lebanese origin with connections in African business circles who, until recently, was selling cars across West Africa from Nigeria, may indicate that Washington, in this case, is prepared to go to great lengths to achieve its goals. The fact is that he is the father-in-law of Tiffany Trump’s husband, as his son, Michael Boulos, is married to her. This results in a rather “coincidental” intertwining of interests, which could essentially be boiled down to the formula “nothing personal, just business,” in American terms and notions.
According to the FT, during Massad Boulos’s negotiations in Kinshasa, the US had already achieved a situation where the M23 rebels withdrew from the vicinity of a tin mine in North Kivu province. This mine is used by the Canadian company Alphamin Resources, where the American company Denham Capital holds a 51% share, for extracting 6% of the world’s tin. This circumstance should be taken into account.
As pointed out by the British Africa Confidential, it was not only Washington who put direct pressure on Kigali in resolving this particular issue but also the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who, since March 18, has been mediating negotiations in Doha between Presidents Kagame and Tshisekedi.
According to the British weekly The Spectator, by sending a trusted family confidant to Kinshasa, Donald Trump has opened a new front in the trade war with China in order to simultaneously boost counteraction against Beijing’s clout in this region of the world.
Trump Aims to Resolve Another Sanguinary Conflict
But to achieve these goals and secure access to the DRC’s strategically important minerals, as experts from The National Interest believe, under current conditions, the US will have to resort to a strategy of maximum sanction pressure on Rwanda while simultaneously providing military assistance to Kinshasa by means of supplying arms and training its military personnel.
Resolving this most bloody conflict of recent years, as it is emphasised by the newspaper, could yield significant political dividends for the current US administration, as it would put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe that has afflicted the eastern regions of the DRC.
Therefore, if the US, using its leverage, manages to bring the conflicting parties to the negotiating table and lay the groundwork for long-term peace, The National Interest continues, it would undoubtedly bolster Trump’s image as a peacemaker and could enhance his chances of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
Assessing the nature of the ongoing negotiations between the DRC government and the US administration, the Berlin-based publication bne IntelliNews notes that with its proposal for joint mineral development, Kinshasa is essentially forcing the US to make a choice: to agree with it or to continue watching as the world’s most important reserves of strategically critical rare earth minerals fall under the control of its main geopolitical rival, China.
Disruption of the supply chains for these materials, whose market is over 90% controlled by China, could, as The New York Times admits, have serious repercussions for the development of US industries such as automotive, electronics, aerospace, and a number of others.
As for the DRC, the primary task in order to make it a reliable long-term supplier of strategically important minerals for the US, according to the experts from the American publication Just Security, should be the stabilisation of the situation in the country. From their standpoint, there are at least two options for resolving the crisis in this region. The first is for the US, UK, and EU to impose stricter sanctions against the leadership of Rwanda and the DRC, as well as associated companies and intermediaries, until the Rwandan government withdraws its troops from the DRC territory and ceases support of M23, whilst the DRC government stops aiding the FDLR.
The second option presupposes the US and EU promoting the decision, within the framework of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to freeze multilateral assistance to these countries, which they heavily hinge on.
In this regard, it is significant to pay attention to a statement made by Massad Boulos on April 17 during an online press conference in Washington. He strongly recommended that Rwanda withdraw all its troops from the DRC and cease any support for the M23 rebel group. Quoted by the publication AllAfrica, he stated that the Trump administration has various tools “that it can and will use if necessary” to provide for “permanent peace” in the region.
Viktor Goncharov, Africa Expert, PhD in Economics
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