Brnabic: Political, bilateral ties with Sao Tome and Principe improving steadily

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic said on Wednesday political and bilateral cooperation and mutual understanding between Serbia and Sao Tome and Principe were improving steadily and that the two countries were exchanging visits increasingly frequently.

"We have signed several agreements on cooperation, including a framework agreement on cooperation between the two governments," Brnabic told a press conference after a meeting with Sao Tome and Principe PM Patrice Emery Trovoada.

As a friendly country, Serbia has been trying to help Sao Tome and Principe whenever required, Brnabic said, noting that Serbia had aided post-flood recovery in the country with 100,000 dollars in 2022 and donated 100 t of flour and 100 t of edible oil, as well as that it had last year provided humanitarian aid to Sao Tome and Principle in the form of 20 t of seed maize from the Zemun Polje Maize Institute.

"That is how additional cooperation is born, and PM Trovoada will have a meeting with the Zemun Polje Institute during his visit to see how we can provide to Sao Tome and Principe the know-how from our scientific institutes about seed materials, with support from certain organisations such as the UN's FAO programme," she said, adding that this would assist Sao Tome and Principe in developing a more sustainable agriculture and help the good reputation of Serbian institutes spread across the African continent.

She said Serbia was one of Europe's leaders in agricultural technology thanks to its BioSense institute for digitalisation in agriculture.

"Those are things we want to make available to our partners and use that as a platform to showcase the know-how and technology Serbia and its scientists can provide to countries on other continents to open up markets for our scientific institutes as well as for our businesspeople," Brnabic said.

She added that tourism was one of the fastest-growing industries in Sao Tome and Principe.

Trovoada was welcomed by Serbian Minister of Information and Telecommunications Mihailo Jovanovic at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport this morning.

Sao Tome and Principe derecongised the unilaterally declared independence of the so-called Kosovo in 2013.