According to the Angolan analyst, this summit, mediated by Angola, will not have the same importance in terms of political coordination at the highest level if one of the participants – Félix Tshisekedi (President of the DR Congo) or Paul Kagame (his Rwandan counterpart) – is not present.
“If one of the participants is not in Luanda, this summit will be worthless, in my opinion, because it involves issues that must be discussed at the highest level and there are elements in which the heads of state must make certain commitments”, Osvaldo Mboco told Lusa today.
The Angola-Rwanda-DR Congo Tripartite Summit is the result of “diplomatic efforts” between the states with a view to “reconciling points of disagreement, bearing in mind that this is a summit that should have taken place some time ago, but for unforeseen reasons, it did not happen”, he stressed.
“We therefore believe that all these constraints have now been overcome and that the conditions have been created for this contact to take place at the highest level,” he said. “It is crucial that the primary actors are involved in a spirit of good faith and compliance with what can be agreed upon at this summit,” he stressed.
President João Lourenço is the mediator appointed by the African Union and this meeting is taking place within the scope of ongoing efforts to find a lasting solution to the armed conflict in eastern DR Congo, according to a note from the Angolan Presidency.
Angola, as a mediating country, “has been allocating all resources and efforts” to finding peace in eastern DR Congo, said Osvaldo Mboco, considering it to be a “chronic and complex” situation.
“And Angolan diplomacy has been doing its best to ensure that understanding becomes a reality at the level of this peace process led by Luanda,” he said.
He considered that Angola's actions also aim to rebuild trust and project a new phase in relations between Kigali and Kinshasa, believing that the summit could symbolise the “rebirth of hope” with the aim of making peace a reality in the east of the DR Congo.
“And here, necessarily, [there must be] greater involvement on the part of Rwanda and the DR Congo. That is why the leaders must put an end to the discourse that has been undermining relations, with mutual accusations, (…) and make concessions so that the mediation process can in fact experience new stages of development towards the stability that is sought”, concluded Osvaldo Mboco.
The establishment of a climate of trust between the States of the Great Lakes Region, the creation of ideal conditions for dialogue and political consultation, with a view to resolving the security crisis in eastern DR Congo and the normalization of political and diplomatic relations are among the actions described in the Luanda Roadmap, approved in Luanda on July 6, 2022.
