New Delhi, Oct 9: India and Tanzania on Monday elevated their ties to the level of strategic partnership, inked six pacts to boost cooperation in several key areas and agreed on a five-year roadmap to significantly expand defence engagement at talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
In his media statement after the talks, Modi said both sides are also working on an agreement to increase trade in local currencies, and described Tanzania as a “valued partner” in the Indo-Pacific.
The prime minister said steps are being taken to adopt the success story of UPI in Tanzania and that both sides will continue to explore new opportunities to realise the full potential of the economic cooperation.
President Hassan arrived here on Sunday on a four-day visit. “Today is a historic day in the relations between India and Tanzania. Today we are tying our age-old friendship into a strategic partnership,” Modi said in presence of Hassan. “In today’s meeting we identified several new initiatives, laying the foundation for this future strategic partnership. India and Tanzania are important partners of each other for mutual trade and investment,” he said.
The six agreements firmed up at the talks will provide for cooperation in the digital domain, culture, sports, maritime industries and white shipping information sharing.
An India-Tanzania joint statement said both sides noted that the strategic partnership will help the two countries to jointly work on issues like maritime security, defence cooperation, development partnership, trade and investment, among others.
It said the two leaders noted that the RBI has cleared the way for trade using local currencies that is Indian Rupee and Tanzanian Shilling by allowing the authorised banks in India to open Special Rupee Vostro Accounts of correspondent banks of Tanzania and that transactions using this mechanism have already materialised. (PTI)
