Democratic Republic of the Congo–Republic of the Congo relations

Common card · No. 494313

Relations between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo were established in 1997. Both countries share the basin of the Congo River, from which both of their national names are derived. Their respective capitals, Kinshasa and Brazzaville, are located directly opposite each other on the banks of the Congo River. Aside from Rome and the Vatican City (an enclave within Italy), they are the two closest national capitals in the world which deeply intertwined with the history of the Kingdom of Kongo. Both countries gained independence from France and Belgium such as the Belgian Congo and the French Congo (French Equatorial Africa) in 1960, during the Cold War, Mobutu ruled the DR Congo as Zaire (a US-backed capitalist pro-western dictatorship) until 1997, while Marien Ngouabi ruled the Congo as the People's Republic (a Soviet-backed communist state), which it remained until 1992, following the collapse of the USSR. The total length of the border between the two...

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