The Portuguese Prime Minister met this Friday with his counterpart from Sao Tome, Patrice Trovoada, in Sao Tome, where he made a stopover before leaving for the Central African Republic (CAR), a meeting whose central theme was bilateral cooperation.
At the end of the working breakfast with Patrice Trovoava, which lasted about an hour and in which there were no statements to the press, the support provided by Portugal last December in the amount of 15 million euros was highlighted.
“We continue to work on identifying the needs and opportunities that are presented to Sao Tome and Principe,” the Portuguese Prime Minister wrote on his Twitter account.
Today, in São Tomé, I met with Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada for a working breakfast. After the support provided last December, we continue to work on identifying the needs and opportunities that Sao Tome and Principe presents. pic.twitter.com/2yEBeXjiAc
– Antonio Costa (@antoniocostapm) February 3, 2023
Last December, the Portuguese Government approved a resolution that authorized the provision of an extraordinary amount of 15 million euros for direct support to the General Budgets of the State of Sao Tome and Principe. Financial support intended to contribute to development in the sectors of education, health and food security, as well as the strengthening of democracy and the rule of law.
This subsidy was due to a visit to Portugal by the Prime Minister of Sao Tome and Principe, Patrice Trovoada, on December 8, when he warned that the archipelago was experiencing a “critical moment” in economic terms.
For his part, António Costa made an official visit to São Tomé on December 19, 2021, during which he highlighted the “strong ties of cooperation that exist between the two countries and which, in his opinion, were consolidated with the signing of the Program Strategic Cooperation Plan between 2021 and 2025”.
The Strategic Cooperation Program (PEC) has an estimated value of 60 million euros until 2025 and gives priority to the areas of health, education and culture, social protection, work and professional training, justice, security and defense, agriculture, fishing, energy and environment, public finances, economy and infrastructure.
During his visit to São Tomé and Príncipe in December 2021, António Costa highlighted the Saúde para Todos cooperation project, launched in 1988 and which is considered one of the most important in Portuguese cooperation. It includes telemedicine since 2011 and has been extended to specialty areas such as imaging, cardiology, dermatology and ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology and gastroenterology, in a total of 26 specialties.
Already on September 27, the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, praised the people of São Tomé for the “political maturity” shown in the last elections, but also the ADI (Independent Democratic Action) and its president for the electoral victory .
“I congratulate the people of Sao Tome for their demonstration of political maturity and democratic vitality. I also congratulate all the parties and candidates, in particular ADI and its president, Patrice Trovoada, for the electoral victory,” António Costa wrote on his Twitter account.
On his last visit to this country, the head of the Portuguese executive had dinner with crew members of the Zaire patrol boat and the Dom Carlos hydrographic vessel, at Espaço Cacau, in São Tomé.
António Costa then considered that the national forces deployed “fulfill a very important mission for the country, because they help Portugal to project itself internationally, to strengthen its position within the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, but also at the level of bilateral cooperation”.
“These missions in Sao Tome and Principe are good proof of this, since they contribute to collective security, specifically in the Gulf of Guinea, a critical transit point in the Atlantic, and for the ongoing scientific mission of the Mar Aberto program,” he said. . .
Since the end of last year, Sao Tome and Principe and Portugal have been negotiating the replacement of the patrol boat Zaire, over 50 years old, which has helped deter crimes in the waters of the archipelago located in the Gulf of Guinea.
The Portuguese Republic (NRP) ship Zaire has been operating in São Tomé waters since January 2018, with a mixed crew of Portuguese and São Tomé troops, within the framework of a bilateral cooperation agreement.
Source: TSF
