City of Brussels to renew collaboration efforts with Kinshasa

The City of Brussels is to renew cooperation ties with the Congelese capital of Kinshasa at the cultural, economic and administrative level, a senior Brussels official has said. 

“We want to involve the Congolese diaspora, especially in Brussels, in the preparation process for the visit,” Brussels State Secretary Pascal Smet said during a Brussels Parliament committee meeting. He added that the political instability in Congo, a former colony of Belgium, had “impacted” the city’s collaboration agreements with Kinshasa’s administration. 

Smet added that Brussels minister-president Rudi Vervoort and Smet himself would pay an official visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the fall of 2020.

The upcoming visit will serve to renew cooperation ties between the two capitals. The city of Brussels will seek to strengthen collaborations with Kinshasa at three levels – cultural, administrative and economic.

Smet made the announcement about the upcoming visit in response to a question from senator Bertin Mampaka about a recent meeting between the Brussels government with the Congolese president Felix Tshisekedi.

Photo: The Congolese embassy in Brussels 

©  Belga / Eric Lalmand

Written by Linda A. Thompson