US-CHINA RIVALRY<\/p>\n
Lingering concerns remain, however.<\/p>\n
For the US, the deal would be an opportunity to access the DRC’s vast critical minerals but also a means to curb China’s influence in the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Boswa Isekombe Sylvere, general secretary of the Congolese Communist Party, said his country wants peace \u201cbut not at the expense of being turned into slaves\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US ought to know that if they agree to exploit minerals, they are dealing with the heritage of the Congolese people, not the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lino N’shimba, president of the US Chamber of Commerce in the DRC, said he believes \u201cthere is not a single country in the world that is not interested in the minerals in the DRC\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, the DRC produces about 70 per cent of the cobalt of the world. The DRC is a major producer of copper,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor history, the uranium that helped produce the first atomic bomb came from here in the DRC.\u00a0So the DRC has always been in the centre in terms of minerals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, China is the dominant player in the DRC’s mining sector, but DRC President Tshisekedi is looking to diversify access.<\/p>\n
Some analysts are concerned that a US entry may create tensions with China.<\/p>\n
“We should give the Americans a mining concession in an area that has no Chinese investments or any other foreign company operating,\u201d said former Congolese senator Delphin Kapaya.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should not be given an area that will result in a legal battle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US-CHINA RIVALRY Lingering concerns remain, however. For the US, the deal would be an opportunity to access the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[8512,8513,811,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-12412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-congo","9":"tag-minerals","10":"tag-security","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114322523079337064","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}