Preneet Kaur visit to strengthen ties with Tanzania

Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur will arrive in Tanzania on an official visit July 7-10, during which she will co-chair the India-Tanzania Joint Commission, the Indian High Commission here said Friday.\

The 8th session of the India-Tanzania Joint Commission on Economic, Technical and Scientific Cooperation, is slated to be held July 8-9 in the Tanzanian capital, the high commission said in a release.

Preneet Kaur, who is currently visiting Mozambique, is coming here at the invitation of Tanzania's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Bernard K. Membe.

Preneet Kaur's visit to Mozambique and to Tanzania is significant from India's energy security perspective, with the recent discovery of large reserves of gas in the Indian Ocean off Mozambique and Tanzania.

Bilateral trade has been growing and its volume crossed a billion dollars in 2010. India-Tanzania trade in 2012 was worth nearly $1.4 billion.

India is partnering Tanzania in some of that country's major developmental projects, including supply of tractors and farm equipment, supply of vehicles for its armed forces, and in water augmentation projects.

Creation of a Centre for Excellence in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Dar-es-Salaam and another ICT project in Arusha is in the offing, the Indian High Commission said.

The 7th session of the Joint Commission was held in January 2009 in New Delhi.

A number of high-level visits have taken place since then, including that of Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo P. Pinda to India in September 2009 and the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Tanzania in May 2011.