DRCongo seeks to become a member of the East African trading block

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, said Thursday that his country was seeking to join the East African Community, a regional political and economic bloc.

The DRC shares borders with four of the six bloc members and Mr Tshisekedi said during a visit to Tanzania – where his headquarters is located – that he hoped that membership would facilitate trade.

"The Democratic Republic of the Congo recently asked to become a member of the East African Community, which will enable us to remove tariff barriers and increase trade between our countries", said Tshisekedi at a dinner with his counterpart John Magufuli.

"We face the challenge of regional integration that we must absolutely achieve," he said, stressing the need for cross-border energy and transport infrastructure.

He supported a railway project linking the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam to eastern DRC via Rwanda – one of the region's many ambitious rail projects.

"Our countries need to engage for development based on democracy and freedom to promote Africans so that they can compete with other parts of the world," Tshisekedi said at the start of his two-day visit. days in Tanzania.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the current president of the organization, has asked EAC to include on the agenda of the next meeting of heads of state the discussion on the DRC's membership, reported Thursday the East African newspaper.

The DRC is already a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc.

EAC members include Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania.