- Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Samia Suluhu Hasan hold talks
- Agree to work together in Maritime Security, Defence, Trade and Investment
By K. V. Prasad
NEW DELHI, October 9. India and Tanzania on Monday decided to elevate the bilateral relations to the level of ‘Strategic Partnership” and to work together on Maritime Security, Development Partnership, Trade and Investment and draw a plan to deepen Defence Cooperation drawing a five-year road map.
In his remarks after the bilateral talks with the visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi characterised the engagement as a ‘historic day’ in India and Tanzania ties as both were converting age-old friendship into a strategic partnership.
India and Tanzania also decided to work on an agreement to increase trade in local currencies and signed six Memorandum of Understandings across various fields like culture, sports digital domain, maritime industries and white shipping.
Defence Cooperation
On his part, PM Modi said the five-year roadmap will add new dimension to cooperation in areas likes training maritime and defence industries. In a joint statement, the two leaders expressed satisfaction over the successful Second Joint Defence Cooperation Committee meeting held in Arusha during June this year, which led to the roadmap.
In the run-up to this, the Defence Minister of Tanzania visited India during August last year and February this year during which both sides agreed to expand the scope of cooperation in the field.
Besides deploying an Indian Military training team at the Command and Staff College in Duluti, several Indian companies took part in the Defence Expos twice in Dar Es Salaam during May 2022 and October this year. Both leaders also expressed pleasure at the progress of cooperation between the two sides towards the capacity building of the Tanzanian forces as well as industry.
Maritime security
Recognising Tanzania as an important country in Indo-Pacific both countries acknowledged that as maritime neighbours who face common security challenges, decided to increase cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.
Expressing satisfaction over the first ever India-Tanzania Joint Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surveillance exercise conducted in July 2023 when the Indian Naval Ship Trishul visited Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, both sides noted that India and Tanzania held bilateral maritime exercise in October 2022 during the visit of the Indian Naval Ship Tarkash. Tanzania appreciated the hydrographic surveys of Tanzanian major ports done by India in recent years.
Both PM Modi and Tanzanian President, in the joint statement said they look forward to increased interoperability between the Armed Forces and noted that regular port calls by the Indian ships to Tanzanian ports . They also appreciated the conduct of the maiden trilateral maritime exercise involving India, Tanzania and Mozambique in the Mozambique Channel during the visit of the Indian Naval Ship Tarkash.
Trade and Investment
India and Tanzania drew satisfaction over the Lines of Credits (LoCs) extended by India to Tanzania that amount to over US $1.1 billion covering fields of drinking water infrastructure, agriculture and defence.
It was specifically noted that Water Projects in 24 towns of Tanzania worth US $500 Million through a Line of Credit scheme are being implemented. Once completed, it would provide easy access to safe drinking water to about six million residents of these regions, the joint statement noted.
Briefing separately on the visit, Mr. Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs, the Lines of Credit were utilised well with India completing four of the six projects which are benefiting the people of Tanzania.
On a three-day visit to India at the invitation of President Mrs Droupadi Murmu, the Tanzania President became the first leader from the Continent after the African Union was formally admitted into G-20 at the New Delhi Summit. A high-level delegation including the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation January Makamba (MP), and other members from different sectors, Senior Government Officials as well as members of the Tanzania Business Community are accompanying her.
