“Our country wanted to join this group of countries that is benefiting from Chinese funding,” Finance Minister Americo De Oliveira Ramos told AFP after the pact with Beijing.Įconomic sectors such as health, oil or China’s primary interest here - fisheries - are earmarked for development, according to the finance minister.Ĭhina is also pursuing the deepwater port proposal that went into abeyance as the Pentagon waged the Iraq War. In December 2016, São Tomé renewed diplomatic ties with Beijing to the detriment of its rival Taiwan, which had cooperated with the African archipelago since 1997. Today - like many other African nations - the country has turned to China to help its development, especially infrastructure. Washington never confirmed the plan, despite stakes in the booming oil industry of the region. In 2002, São Tomé’s then president Fradique de Menezes announced a deal with the United States to create the deepwater port his country lacks and to build a US military base. Tourists to São Tomé and Principe, a scattering of islands off the coast of western equatorial Africa that once served the slave and sugar trades of Portuguese colonial rulers, are rare.Īnd though this paradise has been dubbed “the islands in the middle of the world” - because of their proximity to the zero point on GPS, with the prime meridian just six degrees to the west and the equator crossing one island - it rarely features on any radar for investors. It’s a nation that boasts warm azure seas and dream beaches, a landscape ranging from volcanic rocks to tropical rainforest, and stable democratic rule - yet many people have never heard of it.
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