• India and Tanzania 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.

• Modi and Hassan exchanged views on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest. 

• The two leaders commended the existing close, cordial and cooperative relations and noted that India and Tanzania are time-tested partners bound by a long history of shared values and ideals spanning many years. 

• With a view to further strengthen the bilateral relations and expand  cooperation across various sectors, the two leaders announced the elevation of Indo-Tanzania relationship to the level of ‘Strategic Partnership’. 

• 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.

• 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.

Other key points:

• The two sides agreed to enhance cooperation in maritime security in the Indian Ocean region. 

• The Tanzanian side expressed interest to cooperate with 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.

• The Reserve Bank of India has cleared the way for trade using local currencies — Indian Rupee and  Tanzanian Shilling by allowing the authorised banks in India to open Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVA) of correspondent banks of Tanzania and that transactions using this mechanism have already materialised.

• IIT-Madras will open a campus in Tanzania’s Zanzibar. IIT in Zanzibar has the potential to become the premier centre for technical education in the African continent. 

India-Tanzania relations

• In the initial decades after Tanzania’s independence in 1961, the bilateral relationship was driven largely by shared ideological convergences on decolonisation, anti-apartheid, non-alignment and South-South Cooperation.

• In recent years, the architecture of Indo-Tanzanian relationship has evolved into a modern and pragmatic partnership with greater emphasis on diversified trade, investment and economic engagement, development partnership covering capacity building training, concessional credits and grants and mutual understanding at political level.

• India and Tanzania share robust economic, commercial and business ties. 

• India is the third largest trade partner for Tanzania after China and UAE, and fifth biggest investor. 

• India is the biggest market for Tanzania exports while China is the main source for imports. 

• In 2022-23, bilateral trade was $6.48 billion with Indian exports of $3.94 billion and Tanzania’s export reaching $2.54 billion.

• India’s major exports to Tanzania include petroleum products, engineering goods, medicine and chemicals etc. Indian imports include gold, dried leguminous vegetables, cashew nuts, soya beans, timber, coffee, spices and precious stones, etc.

• Tanzania has about 40,000 people of Indian origin and about 15,000 Indian expatriates working as professionals, mid-level managers and semi-skilled workers.

• India is amongst the top five investment sources for Tanzania whereby 630 investment projects worth $3.74 billion have been registered and thus creating 60,000 new jobs.

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