India committed to strengthen its relations with Tanzania: EAM Jaishankar

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed for the setting up of the first overseas campus of IIT Madras in Zanzibar.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday reaffirmed India's commitment to strengthen relations with Tanzania as he held "comprehensive and productive" talks with his counterpart here to create the pathway to boost bilateral ties in various sectors, including trade.

Jaishankar met Tanzania's Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Dr. Stergomena Tax at the 10th India-Tanzania Joint Commission Meeting.

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"Comprehensive and productive meeting of the 10th India-Tanzania Joint Commission on Economic, Technical and Scientific Cooperation today in Dar es Salaam. Thank my co- chair FM Dr. Stergomena Tax," he tweeted.

Jaishankar said his discussions with Tax covered various domains of cooperation including political, trade and investment, development partnership, capacity building, defence and security, agriculture, health, education, skill and ICT development, energy, mining, blue economy, people-to-people and cultural relations.

"Shared perspectives on the region and of our collaboration in Commonwealth, NAM and UN," he tweeted.

Jaishankar said in a statement that India and Tanzania's relations have always been strong and have been characterised by high-level visits, several agreements, very robust economic engagement, growing development cooperation, and excellent cooperation in the multilateral forum.

"For us, Tanzania is the fourth-largest trade partner in Africa. It is the biggest development partner in the continent, and I am truly pleased that the current momentum is now developing into a growing cooperation, and I would like to reaffirm India's commitment to strengthen and deepen our relations with Tanzania," he said in his opening remarks at the meeting.

Highlighting bilateral engagements, he said the two countries saw increasing political cooperation and broadening of trade basket, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 and disruptions caused by conflicts in other parts of the world.

"We have seen our bilateral trade cross to new levels. Our figures, in fact, show that it is now in excess of USD 6.4 billion. Our investments in Tanzania are also increasing," he said in a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.

"I would like to thank the Tanzanian Government for creating a positive, enabling environment for our business communities to expand their activities," he said.

India is today among the fastest-growing large economies of the world and Tanzania is certainly among the fastest-growing economies in Africa, and this rapid growth on both ends will surely create more opportunities for businesses, Jaishankar said.

"I'm very confident that today's meeting would help to make our relationship more contemporary. It would allow us to fashion a new agenda for us to take forward. And certainly, the political leaderships in both our countries expect that the foreign ministries would create the pathway to take our relationship to a higher level," he said.

Jaishankar arrived here on Thursday after visiting Zanzibar.