“Weak basis” for resuming friendship, Belgium says

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel has spoken of a “weak basis” for the resumption of “friendship” between his country and the DRC. In comments broadcast by DRC television earlier this week during his visit to Kinshasa, Michel said he believed “things are changing” in the DRC. “I have not come here to make a valued judgement, but just to see how a small country, a friend of the Congolese people, can help restructure more efficiently our cooperation and perhaps strengthen it in the long run,” he said. Stressing Belgium’s willingness to help in the reconstruction effort, he appealed to President Laurent-Desire Kabila to “try and convince those around him and make efforts to create conditions for peace, not war”. -