French President Emmanuel Macron met his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi on Monday in Paris. The visit, which will continue tomorrow, Tuesday, will focus on business partnerships, but is also likely to touch on the war in eastern DRC.
Felix Tshisekedi has already visited Paris in the past for international summits, but this is his first official visit to France.
The French president previously visited Kinshasa in March 2023 as part of a tour of Central Africa.
During that visit Macron pledged 34 million euros of aid to Congo's conflict-hit east and said any party seeking to derail peace efforts there should face sanctions.
For this visit, Macron has organised a ceremony for Tshisekedi at the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris as well as meetings with political representatives at the National Assembly and Senate on Monday. He will visit the Élysée Palace on Tuesday.
Business meetings between French and Congolese partners are also scheduled for Tuesday during a Franco-Congolese economic forum organised at the conference centre in Bercy.
Meanwhile, Medef, the group representing French business leaders, will also host roundtable discussions with Congolese guests. It says it wants to foster French investment in the DRC, especially in agriculture and in the energy sector.
Congolese business leaders intend to plead for investments for small and medium-sized companies.
Demands for peace
But for the Congolese president, the main point of discussion is the situation in the east of his country, according to diplomats talking to RFI last week.
Tina Salama, the spokesperson for the Congolese presidency, told RFI that Tshisekedi's priority is to resolve the crisis in the Great Lakes region.
"France is the permanent member of the United Nations Security Council," she said, "which is responsible for proposing resolutions and declarations relating to the situation in the DRC."
Ahead of his arrival in Paris, Tshisekedi met with the ambassadors of Belgium, the United States and France to discuss the security and humanitarian situation in eastern DRC.
The three also went to Goma to assess the needs of the people displaced by the conflict in the east of the country
Tshisekedi also met Germany's Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday in Berlin.
Earlier this week, the French president encouraged the resumption of high-level talks between Rwanda's Paul Kagame and Tshisekedi.
Yet, Congolese authorities are still waiting for a clear position from Paris regarding the presence of Rwandan troops on Congolese territory, and their alleged support to the violent rebellion led by the M23 group.
