Sao Tome, Nigeria Hold Talks on Bilateral Security Agreement

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 08, 2003

Sao Tome, Nigeria Hold Talks on Bilateral Security Agreement

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has announced that his country and Sao Tome and Principe have begun negotiations on a bilateral security pact.

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Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has announced that his country and Sao Tome and Principe have begun negotiations on a bilateral security pact.

According to a report reaching here from Abuja on Thursday,Obasanjo made public Wednesday a letter he had sent to Nigerian legislators, explaining that two-way talks were underway to "stabilize and consolidate the security" of Sao Tome and Principe President Fradique de Menezes.

"The social, economic and political problems that originated"the week-long putsch launched on July 16 by military officers in Sao Tome "persist," Obasanjo said in the letter.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the security agreement reportedly under discussion, but said it would be an accord between equal partners.

There has been no public reaction from Sao Tome on Obasanjo's disclosure.

When the military coup took place, Menezes was on a visit to Nigeria, with whom the archipelago has an oil-exploration treaty for shared territorial waters in the Gulf of Guinea.The coup military returned power to Menezes and Prime Minister Maria das Neves on July 23 after international mediation with an understanding that unspecified changes in government take place.On Monday Menezes refused das Neves' resignation, asking her to remain at the head of the four-party "national unity" cabinet.The Movement for the Liberation of Sao Tome and Principe (MLSTP)party, the biggest of the coalition partners, and two other government parties welcomed the president's initiative Wednesday.Only the Democratic Convergence Party declared its oppositionto the continuation of the present cabinet formula, but it said it would remain in government to help assure "peace, stability and development" for the archipelago's 140,000 people.

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