Portugual said it is "greatly concerned" by reports that its former colony Sao Tome and Principe has signed a military cooperation accord with Russia "for an indefinite period."
Sao Tome and Principe inked the agreement with Russia on April 24 in St. Petersburg, which calls for military training, logistical support and "possible collaborations" involving Russian ships and planes, according to the AFP news agency, which cited Russia's official news gazette. The deal was reportedly implemented on May 5.
All six Portuguese-speaking, or Lusophone, countries in Africa have now signed military agreements with Russia. The first contacts arose during the Soviet era, when liberation organizations in the Lusophone countries that fought against the Portuguese colonial regime received political and military support from Moscow. After the end of the Soviet Union, relations with Russia continued. In recent years, Moscow has tried to intensify these ties.
A discreet but intense dispute has been simmering for some time in the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) — a bloc of the nine nations across the world where Portuguese is the official language — over its position on Russia's war in Ukraine.
Six of the nine CPLP members — Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Equitorial Guinea — are on the African continent, only two of which — Cape Verde, and Sao Tome and Principe — condemned Russia's war of aggression in United Nations General Assembly resolutions.
Angola and Guinea-Bissau in 2022 condemned Russia's so-called referendums on the annexation of eastern Ukrainian territories as illegal.
But otherwise, the picture in the CPLP is very mixed. Portugal, Brazil, East Timor and Cape Verde joined almost every one of the........