The red carpet will be rolled out this afternoon and for four days to welcome the new Congolese President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo on an official historic visit to Belgium.
Tshisekedi is the first president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to visit Belgium since 2007, within the framework of the normalised relations between the DRC and its former colonial power.
The Congolese Head of State and his suite of a hundred people will be welcomed in the afternoon at Melsbroek military airport by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and resigned Minister of Defence Didier Reynders. Prime Minister Charles Michel will then receive the Congolese delegation for a working dinner at Lambermont in Brussels.
The official part of the visit will take place on Tuesday at the Egmont Palace for a first meeting with federal government key members. King Philip will then receive Tshisekedi at the Royal Palace.
The Congolese president is expected afterwards at the Federation of Belgian Enterprises — for the implicit signing of agreements with the private sector — before a dinner hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture Belgium-Luxembourg-Africa- Caribbean-Pacific at the Gallic Circle.
Wednesday will take Tshisekedi to Antwerp to visit the port, the diamond industry and the Institute of Tropical Medicine.
On Thursday Tshisekedi will proceed to Gembloux to visit the Faculty of Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech’s research centre TERRA, dedicated to the agriculture of tomorrow.
In the evening, the President will meet the Congolese diaspora in Belgium and Europe at one of the Heysel palaces of Brussels Expo.
Tshisekedi will leave Brussels during the weekend to participate in the UN’s 74th General Assembly to begin on 24 September in New York.
The Brussels Times
