President Cyril Ramaphosa has arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ahead of high-level deliberations with President Felix Tshisekedi about security cooperation, peace and security in the country and surrounding regions.
Ramaphosa was accompanied by International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor and other senior officials.
South Africa is a signatory to the peace, security, and cooperation framework on stability in the region. The meeting of signatory countries will begin on Thursday.
“The meeting will discuss political and security cooperation, as well as initiatives to deepen economic development and regional integration through integrative cross-border projects.
“The regional oversight mechanism is the primary oversight body under the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework agreement for the DRC and the region,” the Presidency said on Wednesday.
“It meets once a year at the head of state and government level to review progress in the implementation of national and regional commitments under the Framework agreement signed by 13 countries and four Guarantor institutions (UN, AU, ICGLR and SADC) on 24 February 2013 in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia.
“The initial signatory countries were Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Kenya and Sudan joined on 31 January 2014, becoming the 12th and 13th signatories to the peace agreement.”