Congo and US review minerals pact in Paris, publish no figures
The second steering committee meeting produced a joint statement citing progress on a rail corridor and a hydropower plan, but no money or dates.
The United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo reviewed their minerals and infrastructure partnership at a steering committee meeting in Paris on 5 November and published no investment figure or timetable, The Rio Times reported.
The review matters outside the two governments because Congo supplied about three-quarters of the world's mined cobalt in 2025, according to US Geological Survey figures cited by The Rio Times. Cobalt goes into rechargeable batteries, and US battery and electronics manufacturers depend on supply chains that run through Congolese mines.
Nation Africa reported that Congo's position is that the agreement should be judged by projects delivered, not by deals signed.
The two governments issued a joint statement on Friday 6 November. It records progress on a rail corridor and a dam project and names no amount of money.
The framework is the Strategic Partnership Agreement, signed on 4 December 2025, which ties US investment in Congolese projects to peace and security. Its joint steering committee first met on 5 February 2026.
Daniel Mukoko Samba, Congo's deputy prime minister for the national economy, co-chaired the Paris meeting, according to a communique from his ministry. He said the partnership should go beyond mining raw materials and help build infrastructure, industry and jobs in the country.
The Paris statement notes growing interest from US private companies in the Strategic Asset Reserve, a list of Congolese assets on which US firms receive preferential access. The government designated the first list at the committee's inaugural meeting in February.
Delegations welcomed the signing of the concession agreement for the corridor the statement calls Sakania-Lobito, a trade route linking Congo's copper belt to the Atlantic port of Lobito in Angola. Investments along it are listed as a priority.
On Grand Inga, the planned hydropower complex on the Congo River, the statement mentions only next steps. A coordination and governance committee for the project held its first meeting on 26 October 2026.
The US Development Finance Corporation, Washington's overseas investment bank, presented the investments it is preparing in Congo. The statement gives no amount for them.
The delegations took note of a recently adopted Congolese law setting tax and customs rules for projects under the partnership, and urged its application. Both governments said they want more local processing, refining and skills training in Congo rather than exports of raw ore alone.
Both repeated that peace and security in eastern Congo are the foundation of the partnership and called for full and verifiable implementation of the Washington Accords, the peace agreements the United States helped broker. The statement also cites protecting civilians and the safe return of displaced people, and asks for named focal points and a follow-up calendar under a memorandum of understanding on peace and security.
The statement invites eligible US companies to approach either government for the Strategic Asset Reserve list and to seek designation as qualifying projects. Neither government has announced a date for the committee's next meeting.
How the reports differ
Nation Africa led on the Congolese government's argument that the partnership should be measured by projects on the ground rather than by signatures on paper. The Rio Times carried the substance of the Paris meeting: the joint statement of 6 November, the absence of any published investment figure, the cobalt share of world supply and the references to the Sakania-Lobito corridor and Grand Inga. Only The Rio Times named Daniel Mukoko Samba as co-chair of the meeting and dated the committee's first session to 5 February 2026.
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