The Democratic Republic of Congo said Thursday it would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, joining a small group of countries including the United States in taking the symbolic step of backing Israeli sovereignty in the contested holy city.
After a visit by President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi, the two countries in a statement said they would take steps for “the relocation of the embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem”, without giving a timeline.
Tshisekedi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting spoke of their “shared commitment to strengthening diplomatic relations”, the statement said.
Tshisekedi has spoken warmly about Israel for years, saying his support is driven by his Christian faith. He has also been eager for support from the United States, which has increasingly pressured Rwanda over armed rebel advances in DR Congo.
The announcement comes weeks after Colombia’s new hard-right president, Abelardo de la Espriella, also announced that he would move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem, a sharp shift from his leftist predecessor who criticised Israel over its Gaza offensive.
The vast majority of countries, if they recognise Israel, keep their embassies in Tel Aviv on the grounds that the status of Jerusalem will be settled in a final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
President Donald Trump shattered that consensus in 2018 during his first term by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, which is home to Israel’s parliament, prime minister and most other major governmental institutions.
Since Trump’s move, only a handful of small, US-aligned countries have followed suit — Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay.
Kosovo and Somaliland, which are not member-states of the United Nations, have also opened what they consider their embassies in Jerusalem.
Argentine President Javier Milei, another right-wing Latin American who is an outspoken supporter of Israel, has promised to move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem.
The shift has not yet taken place, however, reportedly due to disagreement over an Israeli company’s plans to drill in the British-ruled Falkland Islands, which Argentina claims and calls the Malvinas.
Israel captured the eastern part of Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it, declaring Jerusalem, home to Judaism’s holiest site, to be its eternal, undivided capital.
By Agencies
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