{"id":532146,"date":"2026-09-26T08:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/?p=532146"},"modified":"2026-09-26T08:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:11:06","slug":"belgium-rwanda-diplomatic-relations-restored-after-18-months-of-rupture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/belgium-rwanda-diplomatic-relations-restored-after-18-months-of-rupture\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium-Rwanda: Diplomatic relations restored after 18 months of rupture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgium and Rwanda have decided to restore their diplomatic relations, which had been severed since March 2025 due to disagreements related to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The two countries plan to reopen their embassies soon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision was made on September 22, 2026, in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. It was jointly announced by the Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, and his Belgian counterpart, Maxime Pr\u00e9vot.<\/p>\n

According to the joint statement published by the Rwandan diplomacy<\/a>, each mission will initially be led by a charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires ad interim. He will be accompanied by a diplomat or a consular officer as well as a small technical team.<\/p>\n

The two governments must then request the necessary approvals for the appointment of ambassadors. The future Rwandan ambassador to Belgium will also be accredited to the European Union.<\/p>\n

Contacts revived with the help of Qatar<\/h2>\n

This resumption is the result of several meetings between the two ministers. Kigali and Brussels thanked Qatar, which had facilitated their first discussion in Doha in June 2025.<\/p>\n

The two countries say they want to maintain an open and transparent dialogue to address their disputes. They uphold the principles of non-interference, mutual respect, and constructive engagement. The Brussels Times<\/a> reports that Maxime Pr\u00e9vot presents the agreement as the result of frank discussions and an effort based on mutual respect.<\/p>\n

The disagreement over eastern DRC remains<\/h2>\n

The restoration of relations does not end the disagreements over the Congolese crisis. In a statement published by his office<\/a>, Maxime Pr\u00e9vot affirms that Belgium will continue to defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the DRC. Brussels also intends to support the mediations underway within the frameworks of Doha and Washington.<\/p>\n

Rwanda had severed its relations with Belgium on March 17, 2025, and given Belgian diplomats 48 hours to leave the country. Kigali then accused Brussels of taking sides with Kinshasa and of supporting European sanctions linked to Rwanda\u2019s alleged backing of the M23. Belgium considered this decision disproportionate and, in turn, expelled Rwandan diplomats, according to the Reuters report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The embassies will therefore not reopen immediately with fully accredited ambassadors. The first step outlined in the agreement involves reestablishing reduced teams and permanent channels of communication, while regional disagreements remain on the bilateral agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Belgium and Rwanda are restoring their diplomatic relations after 18 months of rupture and are preparing to reopen their embassies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":532147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_trash_the_other_posts":false,"_benews_format":"","_benews_media_url":"","_benews_urgent_until":0,"_benews_essentials":"","_benews_format_auto":"","_benews_nl_alert":false,"_benews_premium":false,"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"pays":[],"personnalite":[],"class_list":["post-532146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diplomacy"],"acf":{"type_de_publication":"actualite","nom_de_linstitution":"","description_de_linstitution":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":532148,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532146\/revisions\/532148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532146"},{"taxonomy":"pays","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pays?post=532146"},{"taxonomy":"personnalite","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benews.ci\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/personnalite?post=532146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}