- 6/30/2025
In the Oval Office on Friday, President Trump celebrated the peace deal between Rwanda and Congo, by hosting their foreign ministers and his top officials.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00What's up, man? How you doing? How you doing?
00:06What's up, my man?
00:08It's great, huh?
00:10It's 30 years.
00:1230 years.
00:30Well, thank you very much, and I'd like to ask Caroline, who's become very famous, big star, and she has a person who's a colleague of hers, a friend of hers, and that she has a lot of respect for, who comes from the area and knows exactly what's happening. Caroline, could I ask you to say a few words?
00:50Yes, sir. Here we have Haryana, who is from the continent of Africa. She's been a reporter here in the United States for many years, and she has a story to share with the press, with the media, and with these two fantastic leaders who have joined you today. So, Haryana, please.
01:04Why don't you come up here and talk so they can see?
01:06Sure.
01:07That'd be great. Thank you very much.
01:10Thank you, Mr. President.
01:11It's a great honor.
01:12Thank you, Mr. President.
01:14So, as Caroline has mentioned, President, first of all, I want to let you know that I'm the only African reporter accrediting here at the White House and cover for the entire continent.
01:24So, I just arrived from Congo, Democrat Republic of the Congo, yesterday.
01:29Right.
01:30I went to see firsthand how the people is feeling and the President's message, President's fellows about this upcoming peace deal.
01:39And let me tell you firsthand what I've witnessed myself.
01:43I spoke with the people on the street.
01:45I spoke with youth.
01:47They know your name.
01:48They know that our President named President Trump is working hard to finally bring peace to the country.
01:55I saw hope.
01:56They have hope now for a better day in Congo.
01:59They see what you're doing as a future, better future for Congo.
02:05And I had opportunity to sit down with President Felix for an interview because I want to understand his mind, what he's thinking, his feeling about everything that your administration is doing.
02:16And he told me firsthand that for many years, many American presidents overlooked this conflict.
02:22They didn't do nothing.
02:23Even myself, I cover President Biden's administration.
02:26I press many times about this conflict.
02:29People are dying in Congo.
02:31This country has so much potential, but they need help because this war is destroying the country.
02:36That's right.
02:37They never gave me any answer.
02:38And he told me, President Chisekere, that he's very, you have no idea, he's very thankful for what you're doing, for what your administration is doing.
02:46Not only him, the entire Congolese people.
02:48They see that finally they will have hope.
02:50And President Chisekere also mentioned at the end of my interview that when peace finally come to the Democrat Republic of the Congo, he's thinking to nominate you as a Nobel Prize Peace.
03:03Because he said you deserve, you have been working to bring peace in the world, not only at the Congo, and he's very hopeful to meet you in the future.
03:12That's so nice.
03:13Boy, that's so beautifully stated.
03:15And Caroline said, number one, she did say, and I shouldn't say this because it's politically incorrect, she said, she's beautiful, and you are beautiful.
03:24I'm not allowed to say that, you know, that could be the end of my political career, but I said it anyway.
03:29But you are beautiful, and you're beautiful inside.
03:31That's a, so, I wish I had more reporters like you.
03:34So you covered Africa for a long time?
03:37Yes, for over 10 years.
03:39Wow.
03:40I covered even your first administration.
03:42Yes, I know that.
03:43That's great.
03:44Well, thank you.
03:45That's so nice that you said that.
03:47Appreciate it.
03:48And I have one more question, Mr. President.
03:49Yes.
03:50Since we know in July, or in the future, both President of Rwanda and the Congo will be coming.
03:54Yes.
03:55To the United States.
03:56In Africa, President John Lorenzo, the President of Angola, he's also the leader of African Union.
04:01Good.
04:02Yes, I know.
04:03He's worked very hard to bring peace, but unfortunately.
04:05Let's get him here.
04:06Yes.
04:07Okay.
04:08Of course.
04:09Okay.
04:10Of course.
04:11No, we'll have.
04:12I know that he works very hard, and he's the head of essentially the Union.
04:16Yes.
04:17So, the Union all over Africa, not the kind of Union that we have.
04:21This is the Union all over Africa, and I'd love to have him, so you'll let him know.
04:25Of course, Mr. President.
04:26Okay.
04:27Thank you very much.
04:28Thank you, Mr. President.
04:29Good.
04:30Now you go back to where you belong, right?
04:31Sure.
04:32That's great.
04:33That's a great job.
04:34That's real knowledge and a real heart, too.
04:37Congratulations.
04:38Okay.
04:39So, we're here today to celebrate a glorious triumph, and that's what it is, for the cause
04:46of peace, and this is a long time waiting, the signing of a historic peace agreement between
04:53the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda.
04:59The conflict has continued, and it's been going on for many, many years.
05:05It's been going from, I guess they say 30 years, the Great Lakes region of Africa for
05:12a long time, and maybe even a time before that.
05:15How is the Great Lakes region?
05:17Must be beautiful, right?
05:18Beautiful.
05:19Beautiful region, but they had a lot of war, right?
05:22A lot of fight and a lot of death.
05:24It's displaced countless people and claimed the lives of thousands and thousands, but today,
05:29the violence and destruction comes to an end, and the entire region begins a new chapter
05:35of hope and opportunity, harmony, prosperity, and peace.
05:40That's been a long time waiting.
05:42I said, how long has the war been going?
05:44And a friend of mine who was very much involved said, 30 years, and at least six million people
05:51were killed during that period of time.
05:54It's incredible.
05:55And somebody said that was actually, it's the biggest war on the planet since World War
05:59II.
06:00So it's a shame, but we're going to bring it to an end.
06:05I want to express my gratitude and congratulations to the representatives of the Democrat Republic
06:12of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda, who signed his pivotal agreement a short time ago.
06:18They just signed right in front.
06:20And let me also thank Secretary of State Marco Rubio who has worked very hard on this subject
06:25and we've worked on it together for his outstanding leadership as well as senior advisor for African
06:31and Africa Affairs, Mossad Boulos, who's, as you know, spends a lot of his time in Africa
06:39and he's very comfortable there.
06:41I said, were you at all uncomfortable with all of the turmoil and all of the killing?
06:45And he said, no, I wasn't uncomfortable.
06:48And that's what you need.
06:49You need somebody that's going to be able to get.
06:51So Mossad, I want to thank you very much for the job.
06:54You've got an amazing guy, actually.
06:56I also want to thank African Union, Qatar, Togo for working closely with the United States.
07:04And I know Qatar was really working hard and African Union, we just spoke about that.
07:09And I look forward to having them representatives here when we do the official meeting
07:15and that'll be sometime in July.
07:17And we look forward to it.
07:18And you better be here covering it.
07:20Okay.
07:21We're not going to stand anybody else covering it, but you.
07:23But this is a tremendous breakthrough.
07:26In a few short months, we've now achieved peace between India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran,
07:34and the DRC in Rwanda, and a couple of others also.
07:40Serbia, you know, was, they were getting ready to go to war with a group I won't even mention
07:48because it didn't happen.
07:49We were able to stop it.
07:50But I have a friend in Serbia and they said, we're going to go to war again.
07:54And I won't, I won't mention that it's Kosovo, but it's Kosovo.
08:01But they were going to have a big time war and we stopped it.
08:05And we stopped it because of trade.
08:06They want to trade with the United States.
08:08I said, we don't trade with people that go to war.
08:10And we said that also with, if you take a look at Pakistan and India, it was great.
08:15They have two great leaders, two great leaders, and they were able to stop.
08:19They were in the midst of a big, a big fight.
08:21I guess everybody saw and it was going to get very bad.
08:24And they are nuclear nations, very powerful nuclear nations.
08:28In the months and years ahead, my administration will continue to work closely with all of the parties in this deal
08:34and ensure the agreements are fully taken care of.
08:40And you're going to do what's in the agreement.
08:42We'll say you better do what's in that agreement, right?
08:44Because if somebody fails to do that, bad things happen.
08:48But I have a feeling that after 30 years, I think after 30 years, you're all set.
08:52I think both of you have said that's enough, right?
08:55That's enough.
08:56That's enough.
08:57You've seen it all.
08:58So this is a wonderful day.
09:00It's a great day.
09:01We've had some tremendous success.
09:03It's been a great week between just coming back from a very successful trip.
09:08NATO.
09:09NATO's really pulled together.
09:11They have, it's going to be, they're going to spend over a trillion dollars a year.
09:14Nobody expected a thing like that to happen.
09:17And we had the war, as you know, that was, we call it the 12 day war.
09:23It was exactly a 12 day war.
09:25And we ended up with no nuclear weapons.
09:28That's what we wanted.
09:29And they were, they were just absolutely blown to pieces, those three sites.
09:35And there's no nuclear weapons.
09:37And hopefully there can be a lot of healing.
09:40And the healing is starting.
09:42And just, it's been a really pretty amazing week.
09:46And this is one that I really look forward to.
09:48This was set up a few weeks ago.
09:50And it was something that I really look forward to.
09:53If we can do this and we do that because we have a certain competence that's good.
09:57We're able to get people to be peaceful.
09:59I think we can do war better than anybody, but we don't want to.
10:03And we have the greatest military in the world.
10:05They showed that in Iran.
10:07Those pilots, they flew for 36 hours.
10:12And think of that.
10:13And they hit their target.
10:15The size of this desk, half the size of this desk, from about 52,000 feet in the dark of night with no moon, zero moon.
10:24They wanted it that way.
10:25Can you believe it?
10:26And they hit every missile hit exactly half the size of this beautiful resolute desk.
10:31We don't want to talk about it when it comes to rockets hitting it, but half the size of this.
10:36And they hit dead center from tremendous heights going at tremendous speeds.
10:41It's amazing.
10:42Nobody could do a thing like that.
10:44Nobody has that weaponry and nobody could do a thing like that.
10:47So we had a very busy and successful week.
10:50And in addition to that, our economy is doing great, setting records with the economy and a lot of other good things happening.
10:57But this is about Congo and Rwanda.
11:01And I'd like to ask, if I might, would you say a few words before we introduce our guests?
11:08Thank you, Mr. President.
11:09Yes.
11:10So under your leadership, Mr. President, and the full support of Secretary Rubio and the entire team at the State Department,
11:16we engaged with the two parties in early April.
11:21And within three weeks, they signed the Declaration of Principles.
11:25And now within about two months from that, we have signed today the final, this is actually the final peace agreement.
11:32You know, many people were wondering if this is preliminary.
11:35No, this is the actual final peace agreement that they've signed today.
11:39You have also expressed interest in inviting the heads of states to the White House for a signing ceremony.
11:46So there will be some other additional agreements that will be signed.
11:51In addition to this, which will become known as the Washington Accord with regards to the Great Lakes region.
11:58That's great.
11:59There are some economic...
12:00Why not the Trump Accord?
12:01I wish.
12:02I'm only here.
12:03I think that's the great Washington Accord.
12:06Beautiful.
12:07And there's an economic aspect as well that is extremely important for both countries.
12:15They have also worked...
12:16Last week, we finalized the regional economic integration framework, which both countries will
12:24be signing at the White House here during that ceremony.
12:28And...
12:29That's going to be a great ceremony.
12:30Absolutely.
12:31Right?
12:32We're going to make that a great ceremony and bring other people that were involved,
12:37some other people, besides the gentleman we talked about who we know has worked so hard.
12:42If you think there are other people that are deserving, let us know.
12:45Okay?
12:46Sure.
12:47And there will be some bilateral agreements.
12:49We're negotiating a minerals deal with the DRC for critical minerals.
12:55Many American companies have shown interest in investing in the DRC.
12:59And this, we're talking about long-term investments.
13:02Same thing with Rwanda.
13:03Many American companies have shown interest.
13:07And not only in mining, but also in the midstream and downstream, which will be the processing
13:12of minerals.
13:13We're also working and supporting the Lubito corridor, which will help building the infrastructure.
13:18Just two days ago, the United States signed and supported a project of $1.5 billion for
13:27electric transmission from Angola to the DRC.
13:32And there are many other projects of that nature lined up.
13:35So we will be, under your leadership, Mr. President, will be working with the two countries very
13:39closely and with the support of Qatar to make sure that this agreement is implemented.
13:45And a lot of our companies are in both of these countries now, especially since we've been getting along so well.
13:52It's probably the way we were brought together.
13:55And we have a lot of our big companies are there between Rare Earth and all of the other things that they do in Africa,
14:02which is very greatly expanding, especially in these two countries.
14:06You have Earth.
14:07They consider it to be about the best in the world, actually, I've heard.
14:11So we're doing a lot of different things.
14:14And it's all going to bring everybody together.
14:16That's how this all began, I guess.
14:18But the big thing for me is there's really only one thing, and that's getting a peace treaty with two countries that have been fighting for 30 years.
14:27And I want to thank you all.
14:30Will, if you could, you could bring the letters over.
14:33Of course, sir.
14:34So in front of you, as you said, sir, these are the actual agreements that were signed, respectively,
14:38by the foreign ministers of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda earlier today, witnessed by Secretary Rubio.
14:45We've also prepared for you two letters.
14:48This is to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, expressing your appreciation and congratulations for everything that's happened already.
14:56And, of course, inviting him to Washington for, as Dr. Bula said, what we hope will be the Washington Accords,
15:01finally setting the terms for peace and prosperity in this region, hopefully for a very long time.
15:10That's great.
15:12That's beautiful.
15:14Very important.
15:17We're going to put a picture in there, right?
15:19As soon as this is over, they're going to put, we have a fast-moving photographer, Dan,
15:23who's going to put a nice picture of us here.
15:26Okay.
15:28And this is a letter to President Chikisadeh of the Democratic Republic of Congo, again,
15:33congratulating him on settling this long-running war and inviting him to Washington, D.C.
15:38for the final conclusion of the agreement, hopefully soon.
15:43That's great.
15:44That's right.
15:45Thank you so much.
15:46Take that pen.
15:47Can you take that pen?
15:48Thank you very much.
15:49Okay.
15:50So I'd like to ask J.D. to say a few words.
15:51Great Vice President.
15:52And then Marco.
15:53And go ahead.
15:54Great.
15:55Well, first, let me welcome the foreign ministers of Rwanda and Congo.
15:59It's great to have you in the Oval Office.
16:00And second, let me say congratulations to the President, to Secretary Rubio and the entire
16:04team.
16:05I think for the people of these two countries, they should know that the United States is
16:08committed to the pathway of peace.
16:09But to my fellow Americans, this is really a celebratory moment.
16:10This is a big moment for our country because under the President's leadership, we've taken
16:14what was 30 years of killing and war, the worst war in terms of death count since World War
16:21II, and now we're on a pathway to peace.
16:23And so if I think about what I know about these two countries, I think it's a great
16:26great time to say congratulations to the President, to Secretary Rubio and the entire
16:29team.
16:30I think for the people of these two countries, they should know that the United States is
16:32committed to the pathway of peace.
16:33But to my fellow Americans, this is really a celebratory moment.
16:34This is a big moment for our country because under the President's leadership, we've taken
16:37what was 30 years of killing and war, the worst war in terms of death count since World War II, and now we're on a pathway to peace.
16:43For 30 years, pretty much the entire time that I can remember these two countries being in the news, much of the story has been about them fighting one another, about them killing one another.
16:54And now we can look forward to a future where my children will look at this moment as the beginning of a new story, a story of prosperity and of peace.
17:01So thanks to the President, congratulations to the entire team and to my fellow Americans.
17:06We should all be really proud because it's amazing what active presidential leadership can accomplish when it's geared towards peace and
17:12prosperity.
17:13And that's what we have in the Oval Office right now.
17:15So, great job, sir.
17:16Thank you very much, Lee and Marco.
17:18And then we're going to ask the two principals to speak.
17:20Yes, sir.
17:21Mr. President, first of all, thank you.
17:22When I first came on this job a few months ago, you made it very clear that the priority of this administration under your leadership is going to be the pursuit of peace.
17:30And from day one, whether it's been in Ukraine and Russia, whether it's been Pakistan, India, whether it's been Iran and Israel and in the continent of Africa, your priority has been on peace.
17:38And today we see this come to fruition.
17:40It's sad.
17:41Wars get a lot more attention than peace.
17:43But peace is harder than war, a lot harder.
17:45And I want to congratulate both of the leaders here and their respective presidents for choosing the harder path, which is often peace, than the easier path, which sometimes is war as costly and as bloody as it may be.
17:55And I echo the vice president's statements, and that is that Americans should be very proud that the number one voice for peace in the world today is our president, your president.
18:03And so thank you, President Trump.
18:05And I want to, again, recognize Dr. Boulos and the work he's put into this from day one.
18:10He's really put a lot of time and effort, and as our friends from the respective countries can share with us.
18:16And last point, I do want to thank, you've done this already, but the African Union, Togo, and Qatar, who have been extraordinary partners and whose help we're going to need.
18:24To continue to receive in order to bring all this to fruition.
18:27So congratulations to both of you.
18:29And thank you, Mr. President.
18:31Great job.
18:32You've done it.
18:33Do you want to start?
18:34Cool.
18:35Either way.
18:36Would you like to start?
18:37First, maybe.
18:38Thank you so much.
18:39Thank you very much.
18:40Again, thank you so much, Mr. President, for having us here.
18:43I think I can summarize my contribution in three main points.
18:48First of all, thank you and congratulations indeed for this remarkable milestone, which is putting an end to 30 years of conflict and of suffering.
18:56And which is redefining the perspectives that millions of Congolese and of citizens of the greater Great Lakes region will have.
19:03The second point is stay committed.
19:06Stay on board.
19:07We need the United States to make sure that this agreement holds and that you hold us accountable.
19:12And the third point is if you stay on board, I think there are so many perspectives that we can transform our partnerships through and that can usher in an era of prosperity, of growth and of shared bilateral relationships that go well beyond the challenges that we've shared together and that can at least or finally focus on the potential and of the wealth that we can share.
19:35So again, our heartfelt gratitude to you on my behalf, but more importantly, on behalf of the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
19:43Thank you so much.
19:44Beautifully spoken.
19:45And I look forward to seeing your leader.
19:47They will highly respected person, as you know, highly respected all over the world, but in Africa in particular.
19:54So sometime in July, we'll do something big ceremony.
19:58Thank you very much.
20:00Please.
20:02Thank you very much, Mr. President.
20:03This is indeed a historical thing because it's the signing of a peace agreement between Congo and Rwanda to end a conflict that has been going on for 30 years.
20:16And there has been many mediation facilitation in the past, but none of them succeeded.
20:25And we believe that it's because of your leadership and your steadfast commitment to this process with also a new approach of economic integration, regional economic integration, which is important to allow Rwanda and DRC working together because this is a very rich region with cross-border trade, with minerals, with natural wealth.
20:52Wealth.
20:53So with the U.S. standing side by side with Rwanda and DRC, we believe that we will achieve a long-time peace.
21:02And we also believe that, as my colleague from DRC stated, it's important for the United States to stay committed because today we signed, but now we need to implement what we have signed in order to open this new era you were talking about of prosperity so that we can reap the economic dividend of peace.
21:25So for this economic integration framework to be implemented, it's important for the U.S. to accompany the parties to implement what we have signed because in the past we have signed so many agreements that were not implemented.
21:38And we believe that with your leadership, with the involvement of the United States administration, we will reach that goal.
21:47So thank you very much, Mr. President.
21:48Mr. President.
21:49Well, this will happen definitely.
21:51I can reach over.
21:52Do you want to just press them over to me?
21:54Yes, sir.
21:55Let me have them.
21:56And I just wanted to give you each.
21:58These are your signed agreements.
22:00And we'll make sure that you follow through.
22:03We'll make sure you follow through.
22:04Yeah.
22:05We'll make sure that you follow through.
22:06Okay?
22:07That's for you.
22:09And we have one other thing that we're going to give, that we give to special people only.
22:13It's a coin.
22:16And I hope you do that.
22:17And we're going to give you a second one for your leader.
22:19Oh, cool.
22:20Thank you very much.
22:21He's a serious coin.
22:26You don't want to, you don't want to lose them.
22:29You'll be very.
22:30I think that your reporter from Africa should get one.
22:32What do you think?
22:33Is she allowed?
22:34Yes?
22:35Are the reporters okay with it?
22:38Brian?
22:39Yes?
22:40Darling, that's for you.
22:41Okay.
22:42You did a fantastic job.
22:44I heard you do a great job in covering everything.
22:47And, Mr. President, we actually have the pictures that you took earlier.
22:50Oh, let me see that.
22:51Foreign ministers here already.
22:52Thank you so much, Mr. President.
22:54Let me see that.
22:55They're in this folder right here, sir.
22:57Okay.
22:58This one?
22:59Yes, sir.
23:00Oh, they look better than me.
23:02I don't like it.
23:03I don't like it.
23:05That's beautiful.
23:07That's very good.
23:08We have a good photographer.
23:10Beautiful.
23:11That's great.
23:12You better, I'll tell you, you better do the job here or we're going to come down harder.
23:24It's beautiful.
23:26Thank you very much.
23:27So, we'll put them in.
23:28That's for you.
23:29That's for you.
23:30I can do that.
23:31Oh.
23:32That's for you.
23:33This is for the corporate.
23:34And what is it?
23:35For the corporate.
23:36Yes.
23:37Okay.
23:38Let's see.
23:39Do we have two of them?
23:40I think so.
23:41If you wouldn't give us one, we would have made a big mistake.
23:50Isn't that nice?
23:51That's for you.
23:53That's for you.
23:54Thank you, Mr. President.
23:55Thank you very much.
23:56And you're all set.
23:58And this is for you.
23:59You're going to get this.
24:00Yes, sir.
24:01Good.
24:02Might as well hold it.
24:03Thank you so much.
24:04Thank you very much.
24:05Good luck.