Today, Kinshasa hosted the 9th Ordinary Meeting of the ICGLR Regional Interministerial Committee (RIMC), the executive body of the Conference.
This meeting comes on the eve of the 9th Summit of Heads of State and Government, which will mark the transition of the presidency from the Republic of Angola to the Democratic Republic of Congo. This change implies the handover of the presidency at all structural levels of the ICGLR. Indeed, the Pact, a document that governs legal relations between ratifying States, established the Regional Follow-up Mechanism to ensure the implementation of the Pact, through various bodies: the Summit of Heads of State and Government, the RIMC, the Secretariat of the Conference, the National Coordination Mechanisms and other thematic structures or forums.
Today, the President of the RIMC, the Minister of External Relations of Angola, Amb. Tete Antonio handed over the baton to the Minister of Regional Integration of the DRC, H.E. Floribert Anzuluni
The holding of this 9th Interministerial Meeting takes place in a regional context marked by persistent security and humanitarian challenges. H.E. Floribert Anzuluni, DRC Minister of Regional Integration, spoke about the usefulness of the ICGLR in such a context: “The Pact for Peace, Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region responds to the structural problems at the root of armed violence that jeopardize development in the region.” A declaration that reaffirms the raison d’être of the ICGLR, almost twenty years after its creation: to make the Pact a living instrument at the service of a peaceful and prosperous region.
The Heads of State and Government will meet in Kinshasa in two days to perpetuate the legacy of the founding fathers of the Pact. Twenty years after its signing, the ICGLR is resolutely looking ahead to the next twenty years, with the same ambition: to build a Great Lakes Region that is sustainably pacified and prosperous.
