Visit of the Foreign Minister of Tanzania to India for the Ninth Session of Joint Commission Meeting
October 16, 2018
- India-Tanzania Joint Commission on Trade, Scientific and Technical Cooperation held its 9th session led by the External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj and the Minister of Foreign Affairs & East African Cooperation of Tanzania, Dr. Augustine P. Mahiga
on 15-16 October 2018. The session was marked by the warmth, friendship and mutual appreciation that underpin long-standing, strong relations between the two countries since the times of President Julius Nyerere.
- The Joint Commission reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations covering excellent Government-to-Government relations, strong business ties, impressive development partnership cooperation and deep people-to-people relations rooted in educational,
healthcare, culture, academic and diaspora linkages between the two countries. The Commission evaluated the developments since the 8th session of the Joint Commission held in Tanzania in July 2013, outcomes of the visits of President of Tanzania to India in
June 2015, decisions of the visit of the Prime Minister of India to Tanzania in July 2016 and the meeting of the Joint Trade Committee co-chaired by the Ministers of Industry & Trade of the two countries in August 2017.
- The Commission expressed satisfaction on the healthy trend in trade and investment relations, scientific cooperation, culture & academic exchanges and well-developing development partnership between the two countries. India is the largest trading partner
of Tanzania comprising 18% of its foreign trade and is among the top five investing countries in Tanzania, and these ties are developing well. Tanzania invited greater Indian investment and business linkages in areas such as agro-products, manufacturing, mining,
tourism and informed that Air Tanzania plans to start direct flights between Dar es Salaam and Mumbai in December 2018 hopefully in the next month. Tanzania is a leading country for Indian Technical & Economic Cooperation (ITEC) and India-Africa Forum Summit
programmes for training and educational scholarships as well as grant projects in the field of Information Technology, healthcare and education. India's credit commitments of over USD 1 billion in development projects in Tanzania in the field of water infrastructure
were appreciated by the Government of Tanzania. Energy, infrastructure and mining were noted as promising sectors in terms of development of natural gas, mineral reserves such as gold and precious stones, power generation & distribution, road, railways and
airport projects being taken up by the Government of Tanzania. In the light of Tanzania's membership of the International Solar Alliance, the two countries also expect to take up a solar power project in Tanzania in the near future.
- The two Ministers exchanged views on regional and global developments, including the East African Community Secretariat based in Tanzania, counter-terrorism, Indian Ocean Region as well as defence and security collaboration between the two countries. The
two Governments agreed to consider bilateral agreements in areas such as investment treaty, customs cooperation, blue economy, extradition treaty, mutual legal assistance, cyber-security and cooperation in geology and mineral resources. The understandings
and decisions of the Joint Commission were concluded in the form of Agreed Minutes of the Joint Commission signed by the two Ministers. During the Joint Commission, the two countries signed an MOU on cooperation between Foreign Service Institute of India and
the Center for Foreign Relations, Dar es Salaam and exchanged an MOU for cooperation between National Research Development Cooperation and the Tanzanian Industrial R&D organizations.
- The Tanzanian Minister, Dr. Mahiga greeted India on the celebration of the 150th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi and extended cooperation in paying a befitting tribute to him in Tanzania. Both the Foreign Minsiters viewed the rendition of "Vaishnav
Jan To Tene Kahiye” by the famous Tanzanian and Kiswahili singer , Ms. Vanessa Mdee and recalled the role of Mahatma Gandhi as a linkage between India and Africa.
- The visiting Minister addressed officials and scholars at the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi on Tanzania’s perspectives on relations with India. He also visited the National Maritime Foundation for exchanges on maritime linkages and developments.
New Delhi
October 16, 2018