UNITED NATIONS — The Democratic Republic of Congo does not view growing American involvement in its critical-minerals industry as a contest with China, the country’s foreign minister told Fox News Digital, arguing that Kinshasa needs multiple partners to transform its vast natural wealth into prosperity for its people."I don’t like talking about competition.I like talking about complementarity," Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner said in an exclusive interview at the United Nations.CHINA’S GRIP ON RARE-EARTH MAGNETS COULD CRUSH US DRONE INDUSTRY BEFORE IT GROWSU.S.
President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance meet Democratic Republic of the Congo's Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025.(Ken Cedeno/Reuters)"A country as big as the USA, but also a country as big as the DRC and as big as China, they do not develop just with one single partner," she added.
"They develop with different partnerships that respond to different needs and that bring different expertise to the table."The comments come as the Trump administration seeks to increase American access to Congo’s copper, cobalt, lithium, gold and other strategic resources, while reducing U.S.reliance on mineral supply chains dominated by China.A strategic partnership signed by Washington and Kinshasa on Dec.
4, 2025, calls for increased economic cooperation, investment and the development of secure and transparent critical-mineral supply chains.The agreement accompanied a broader regional framework linking economic integration to efforts to end decades of conflict between Congo and Rwanda.TRUMP ADMIN BACKS BOLIVIA STATE OF EMERGENCY AS LEFTIST EX-LEADER'S LOYALISTS FRACTURE NATIONExcavators and drillers at work in an open pit at Tenke Fungurume, a copper and cobalt mine 110 km (68 miles) northwest of Lubumbashi in C...