Sierra Leone and Belgium have signed an agreement that seeks to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries.
A statement from the Foreign Ministry seen by APA on Friday indicates that the agreement signed in Freetown is specifically geared towards promoting effective regulatory control of air transportation services between the two countries.
Besides the fact that the Belgian airline SN Brussels is one of the leading airlines linking Sierra Leone to Europe, many flights that take off from Freetown International Airport also transit through Brussels.
Belgium is also home to many Sierra Leoneans who found their way to the European kingdom during the West African country’s civil war.
This has largely influenced the massive bilateral trade and investment in Sierra Leone by Belgian businesses.
Antwerp in Belgium is also home to many of Sierra Leone’s diamonds.
Acting Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Kanja Sesay, said Belgium is also important to Sierra Leone given the role it has played in various instances of the country’s trying moments, notably the Ebola epidemic of 2014-2017 and the mudslide of 2017.
Belgium’s ambassador to Sierra Leone, Hugues Chantry, who is usually based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, flew into Freetown to ink the deal.
He said the agreement is a new version of an existing agreement signed in 1974.
Negotiation for the new agreement, Mr Chantry revealed, began in 2009.
KC/as/APA