JOHANNESBURG—The Russian Navy now has broad access to the Atlantic and Mediterranean thanks to a military cooperation agreement with São Tomé and Príncipe, an archipelago with some of West Africa’s most strategic ports.
Moscow and Prime Minister Américo Ramos’s government recently ratified an agreement that permits Russian vessels, including navy warships and others under United States and European sanctions, to use the islands in the Gulf of Guinea as a base.
The agreement also potentially gives Russia preferential rights to large oil and gas reserves.
Turkey has signed a similar deal with Ramos’s administration, which, up until now, has prioritized ties with the European Union.
The government in São Tomé said its agreements with Russia and Turkey won’t jeopardize its relations with Europe, the United States, and others.
But international relations experts said São Tomé and Príncipe’s drift towards Russia and Turkey was disturbing as the country—Africa’s second smallest state with a population of just 200,000—has consistently been rated one of Africa’s strongest democracies.
Both Russia and Turkey are ranked extremely low on the same barometer, and Moscow in particular has been accused of sowing false information in Africa to influence local politics and election outcomes.
One of Turkey’s major interests in Africa in recent years has been the export of drones, rated by defense experts as some of the best in the world.
The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, South Africa, classifies São Tomé and Príncipe as a lower-middle-income country. It is largely import-reliant but exports cocoa beans, palm oil, coconut oil, petroleum products, and fruit.
Analysts ascribe Ramos’s government’s deals with Russia and Turkey partly to the archipelago’s decreased trade with Europe in recent years.
“There’s a feeling in São Tomé and Príncipe that strong European relations have only benefited the elite. The normal people live in poverty; there’s high income inequality,” said Edward Sarpong, senior researcher at the Good Governance Africa West Africa Center in Accra, Ghana.
Yet, he added, evidence of sustained European engagement and support for the islands is strong. The EU has a long-standing cooperation program with the country, focusing on governance, democracy, renewable energy, and human development.
Sarpong told The Epoch Times: “I don’t know what incentives the Russians have offered to those who govern São Tomé and Príncipe, but it’s not fair to say the agreement with Russia is because Europeans have become disengaged from the region.”
ISS analyst Tim Walker, who specializes in African maritime issues, said the country’s move towards Russia and Turkey is “an obvious shift in policy” and “won’t go down well” in Washington and Brussels.
“The United States and Europe have been helping São Tomé and others in the Gulf of Guinea fight piracy, and American and European warships are very active in the area. They won’t like sharing it with the Russians. This is going to cause a lot of tension in an area where there’s already plenty of tension,” he told The Epoch Times.
The Gulf of Guinea is rich in resources. Comprising 17 countries, from Angola to Senegal, it has vast deposits of hydrocarbons, diamonds, tin, and cobalt, and is one of the globe’s richest fishing grounds.
Crucially, according to a report in the Oil Review Africa magazine, the region is responsible for 60 percent of the continent’s oil production. It’s home to 4.5 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves and almost 3 percent of proven natural gas reserves.
Gerard Kamga, a Gulf of Guinea expert at the University of Free State in South Africa, said the area is responsible for four percent of global fish production.
Russia and Turkey haven’t been put off by the lawlessness around São Tomé and Príncipe, said Walker, because the islands are of great strategic value.
“Russia and São Tomé have agreed to share intelligence and military collaboration, which must worry the U.S. in particular as the U.S. Navy has a strong presence in the Gulf of Guinea, and now its ships are going to be spied on quite easily,” he explained. “Russian naval vessels now have access to the two islands’ ports for resupply and rest. This is very valuable to Moscow because Russian vessels have limited access to ports because of sanctions implemented after Russia invaded Ukraine.”
Professor Sam Tshehla, analyst at the South African Military Academy, said Russia’s strategy in Africa is to challenge Western influence by establishing strategic footholds, including potential naval bases, and expanding its reach in “critical” maritime regions.
He told The Epoch Times: “São Tomé and Príncipe is a vital trade link between Africa and Europe. It contains a lot of oil and gas. Strategically speaking, it offers Russia a place to base its warships in the Atlantic in the event of a conflict possibly involving European nations and North America.”
The Ramos administration’s spokesperson, Manuel Salvador, told The Epoch Times its dealings with Moscow and Ankara “should not be seen as rejection of the valuable agreements we have with the United States and the European Union. Our relations with both are good. We are just diversifying our interests; that is all.”
An expert in Africa’s foreign relations, Chris Alden, of the South African Institute of International Affairs, told The Epoch Times that São Tomé and Príncipe’s deal with Russia in particular is part of a trend in West Africa.
“The Kremlin’s military and defense relationships are expanding rapidly in the region,” he said. “There are arms deals being signed; military training agreements, and in some countries we see what Moscow calls ‘private military contractors’ providing security to governments.”
Alden said Russia now has military cooperation agreements with at least 43 of Africa’s 54 countries.
“The Russians are training armies; they’re supplying weapons and military equipment, especially in countries that are unstable, or where there’s a perception of American and European disinterest and disengagement,” he explained. “That is the ground that Moscow is exploiting.”
In this respect, said Alden, São Tomé and Príncipe is an “aberration,” because it’s a stable democracy, but Russia is attracted to its strategic ports.
Tshehla said it’s now up to Washington and European governments to respond to Russian and Turkish moves.
“It’s a bit naïve in this day and age to expect African countries, especially the very small ones, not to have a range of agreements with a range of different powers,” he said. “It’s then up to Russia and Turkey’s competitors to respond with counter-offers that are irresistible so that these competitors remain dominant.”
