Congo and Rwanda have submitted a draft peace proposal as part of a process aimed at ending the fighting in eastern Congo and attracting billions of dollars in Western investment, according to the senior adviser for Africa to US President Donald Trump earlier this week.
The deal is the latest step in an ambitious bid by the Trump administration in the US to end a decades-long conflict in the central Africa region, rich in minerals including tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium.
The two countries' foreign ministers had agreed last month, at a ceremony in Washington alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to submit the draft proposal by 2 May.
Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said on RFI's sister television channel, France 24, on Monday evening that the peace agreement talks are moving forward smoothly and on time, as the Congolese authorities are now fully involved in the discussions
Trump's new senior adviser for Africa and the Middle East, Massad Boulos, said on social media on Monday that he welcomed "the draft text on a peace proposal received from both the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda," describing it as "an important step" towards peace.
Boulos told news agencies last week that Washington wants to move quickly, and that the plan was for Rubio to meet again with his Rwandan and Congolese counterparts in mid-May in Washington, to agree on a final draft peace accord.
But Rwanda and Congo must finalise bilateral economic agreements with Washington before the accord can be signed, Boulos added.
The US and Western companies thus plan to invest billions of dollars in Congolese mines and infrastructure projects to support mining in both countries, including the processing of minerals in Rwanda.
The hope is that all three agreements can be signed in about two months, and on the same day, at a ceremony attended by Trump, according to Boulos.
Meanwhile, on the ground, the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels are still advancing in eastern Congo, with fighting killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands more.
Congo's army on Saturday accused M23 of seizing the town of Lunyasenge on Lake Edward, according to Mak Hazukay, a spokesperson, who added that DRC "reserves the right to retaliate".
The United Nations and Western governments say Rwanda has provided arms and troops to M23, which Rwanda denies. Kigali says its military has acted in self-defence against Congo's army and a militia founded by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.
Last month the DRC and the rebels had agreed to work towards peace, but sources in the two delegations have expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi's government is also engaged in separate talks with M23 facilitated by Qatar. Both parties have restarted these peace talks, sources said on Tuesday.
M23 is involved in these peace talks but not in the ones in Washington, though the spokesperson for the rebel alliance that includes M23, Lawrence Kanyuka, told Reuters last week that the group encourages "any peace initiative."
(with newswires)