On 4 December 2025, the presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Rwanda signed the long-awaited “Washington Accord,” a landmark peace agreement aimed at ending decades of conflict and insecurity in eastern DRC and easing tensions between the two neighbours.
In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, Rwandan President Paul Kagame praised what he described as a new kind of US diplomacy under President Donald Trump, saying it played a decisive role in moving the peace process forward.
Kagame said he had “never seen the level of focus, attention, energy and pressure” that Washington applied to the conflict, crediting it with helping secure the tentative deal between Kigali and Kinshasa.
He added that Trump’s approach—one that places less emphasis on traditional Western talking points such as “democracy, freedom and human rights”—had accelerated negotiations and forced both sides to confront long-standing issues without what he called political posturing.
Click to watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQiDUowSXBI
