Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Opposition to a deal that would allow US companies access to critical minerals in Congo is growing after Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi returned from the US minerals summit last week — with praises from US President Donald Trump and US lawmakers, according to a media report.
Tshisekedi has offered US companies access to eastern Congo’s rich minerals — mostly untapped and estimated to be worth $24 trillion – as a bargaining chip for US support to help fight off rebels and build critical infrastructure in the region where Rwanda-backed rebels seized major cities last year.
It comes as the Trump administration seeks to create a minerals trading bloc with its allies, in part to defend against China’s stranglehold on critical elements needed for everything from fighter jets to smartphones. On the sidelines of the February 4 Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington DC, Tshisekedi led a Congolese delegation on strategic meetings with senior Trump administration officials and members of the Congress, mostly building on the strategic partnership agreement that both countries signed in December.
The strategic partnership has been framed as securing supply chains for strategic minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium and coltan for the US, while Congo in return receives US support for development of key infrastructure. In Congo, however, analysts and residents say there are still no signs that US involvement in the country’s minerals sector will help meet its most crucial need: permanent peace and stability particularly in the east where Rwandabacked M23 rebels have seized territories a year ago. The rebels also control vast territories rich in minerals. In the capital of Kinshasa, opposition is growing against the mineral partnerships both from public figures and the civil society leaders, some of whom have accused the Congolese government of underselling the country’s vast mineral wealth.
