Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bilateral meeting with Tanzanian President, Samia Suluhu Hassan at Hyderabad house, in New Delhi on October 09, 2023.
New Delhi: Acknowledging that India and Tanzania are maritime neighbours “who face common maritime security challenges”, the two countries today agreed to enhance cooperation in maritime security in the Indian Ocean region.
During a bilateral talk between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the visiting Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan today, both leaders expressed 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. They also noted that India and Tanzania held bilateral maritime exercises in October 2022 during the visit of the Indian Naval Ship Tarkash.
The Tanzanian President arrived yesterday in India on a three-day State Visit at the invitation of President Droupadi. She is accompanied by 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. She was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, here today.
Both President Samia and Prime Minister Modi looked forward to increased interoperability between their Armed Forces. They noted the regular port calls by the Indian ships to Tanzanian ports and 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 in October 2022.
The two leaders commended the signing of the Technical Agreement on sharing White Shipping Information between India and Tanzania. The Tanzanian side also appreciated the hydrographic surveys of Tanzanian major ports done by India in recent years, and the two sides agreed to continue cooperation in this area.
The Tanzanian side expressed interest in cooperating with the Government of India in the field of Blue economy including tourism, maritime trade, services and infrastructure, marine scientific research, capacity in seabed mining, ocean conservation and maritime safety and security. India and Tanzania agreed to cooperate under the framework of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to ensure a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Indian Ocean Region.
Both President Samia and Prime Minister Modi exchanged views on bilateral, regional, and international issues of mutual interest, and commended the existing close, cordial and cooperative relations. The two leaders expressed desire to expand bilateral trade using local currencies. They noted that the Reserve Bank of India has cleared the way for trade using local currencies i.e. Indian Rupee (INR) and Tanzanian Shilling by allowing the authorized banks in India to open Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVA) of correspondent banks of Tanzania and that transactions using this mechanism have already materialised. The two sides agreed to continue with the consultations in order to address any concerns so as to ensure the sustainability of this arrangement.
The two sides expressed commitment to increase bilateral trade volumes and towards this end, directed the respective Officials to explore new areas of trade. It was further agreed that both sides should harmonise trade volume data and take initiatives to further enhance bilateral trade volumes by organizing visits of business delegations, business exhibitions and interaction with business communities.
India is amongst the top five investment sources for Tanzania whereby 630 investment projects worth USD 3.74 billion have been registered thus creating 60,000 new jobs. Both sides welcomed recent trends of renewed interest among Indian businesspersons for investment in Tanzania and agreed to explore the possibility of setting up an Investment Park in Tanzania.
– global bihari bureau
