The Democratic Republic of Congo has announced it will relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the latest in a small but growing number of countries to break with the international diplomatic consensus on the city's status. The pledge came following a meeting on 1 September in Jerusalem between Congolese President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after which both governments issued a joint statement committing to steps toward the relocation and affirming their shared desire to strengthen diplomatic ties.
The announcement revives a commitment first made in September 2023, when Tshisekedi met Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. No precise timeline has been given for the move. As part of the agreement, Israel also committed to pursuing the opening of a resident embassy in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital — a step that would mark a significant deepening of bilateral relations. Tshisekedi has expressed interest in expanded cooperation with Israel in agriculture, water management and security.
The status of Jerusalem lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel, which captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the United Nations, considers the entire city its capital. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. The UN Security Council has repeatedly called on countries not to establish diplomatic missions there, and the vast majority of nations with ties to Israel have kept their embassies in the Tel Aviv area, pending a negotiated resolution.
The United States moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 under President Donald Trump, and a handful of countries — including Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay — have since followed. Kosovo and Somaliland, neither of which are UN member states, also maintain missions they regard as embassies in the city. The DRC's pledge comes weeks after Colombia's new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, made a similar announcement, signalling a broader shift among some governments toward closer alignment with Israel's position.
Tshisekedi has spoken openly about his personal affinity for Israel, citing his Christian faith as a motivating factor. The DRC — a vast, mineral-rich country in central Africa and one of the continent's most populous — has also been seeking stronger ties with Washington, which has been pressuring neighbouring Rwanda over its alleged support for armed rebel groups operating in eastern Congo. The embassy move carries both symbolic and diplomatic weight, aligning Kinshasa more closely with a position long championed by the United States and Israel, even as it distances the country from the broader international consensus.