The foreign ministers of India and Tanzania have announced a joint plan to strengthen and expand their bilateral relations.
This strategic agreement seeks to uncover new opportunities for collaboration across a range of fields, including trade, investment, agriculture, the military, and education, among others.
On Saturday at the 10th India-Tanzania Joint Commission Meeting, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Stergomena Tax, Tanzania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation.
The Joint Commission session between the two parties was quite successful, he added.
This provided us with an opportunity to take an inventory of our relationship and talk about the new areas where we need to make progress.
Additionally, to come to an understanding regarding how to intensify our collaboration in the areas where we have been working for many years,” he said.
The two sides also discussed their economic cooperation and ways to boost trade and investment.
The two parties addressed how to foster more effective ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and technological cooperation.
We discussed increasing internal training and communication. And we looked at new domains to travel between India and Tanzania in sectors like health, agriculture, defense, and education,” he told reporters.
He asserted that due to their common colonial-era struggle for freedom, India and Tanzania have a very solid and long-standing connection built on mutual support and camaraderie.
And right from the start of our freedom, we’ve always had a really great understanding.
Today, that is demonstrated by very strong economic participation. Almost $6.50 billion worth of trade occurs each year, Jaishankar added.
According to him, India has a sizable stake in Tanzania, which is the nation’s main African trading partner.
Transformative Water Partnership
Jaishankar stated India is proud of the water relationship between the two countries when discussing their bilateral development partnership.
8 million Tanzanians will have access to clean drinking water thanks to the “Water Partnership,” which includes soft loans totaling roughly a billion dollars.
28 towns in this nation, in my estimation. And for us, it’s a real honor to be a part of such a significant development program that is focused on transformation, he added.
According to Jaishankar, the two sides decided during his visit to create a campus for the Indian Institute of Technology, which will highlight the strong friendship between the two countries.
For the first time ever, the IIT is touring outside of India. We are quite happy that this will happen in Zanzibar because the island is, in many respects, a confluence of African and Indian cultures, he said.
Consequently, he remarked, it has been a really fruitful visit overall.
Joint Commission Meeting and Roadmap
“Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi thinks the strong solidarity between India and Africa must be depicted in very practical terms in a way that we trade experiences, we share capacities, and we cooperate in a variety of fields” and we contribute to each other’s understanding of the world, I want to emphasize this before I go.
The joint commission meeting today and the strategy we’ve provided are ways to do it, he continued.
Prime Minister Modi firmly believes that relationships are built by acknowledging the priorities of partners, he said.
According to Tax, the two parties decided to increase their cooperation in these fields after noting with satisfaction the accomplishments in a number of fields, including politics, trade and investment, energy, education, water, health, and ICT.
The choice to build Zanzibar’s first Indian Institute of Technology will support Tanzania’s initiatives to strengthen its technological and innovative capabilities.
Tanzania is still dedicated to working with and with India, she said.
During his visit, Jaishankar also met with President Samia Hassan of Tanzania to discuss bilateral relations in maritime cooperation, capacity building, and defense and security.
President Samia also received personal greetings from Prime Minister Modi and President Droupadi Murmu through him.
