India and Tanzania on Friday reviewed the entire spectrum of their bilateral defence and strategic ties during talks between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his visiting Tanzania counterpart Stergomena Lawrence Tax. The two leaders agreed to boost bilateral military-to-military cooperation in sync with India’s broader priority to deepen strategic ties with Africa.
The two Defence Ministers also explored new avenues for defence and industrial cooperation to further strengthen bilateral engagements, officials said. Following the talks, Rajnath said India and Tanzania share the same strategic space and New Delhi considers the African nation as a “major Western Indian Ocean Player”.
“Reviewed the full range of India-Tanzania defence ties during the fruitful meeting with the Tanzanian Defence Minister, Stergomena Lawrence Tax in New Delhi. India and Tanzania share the same strategic space. India gets Tanzania a major Western Indian-Ocean Player,” he tweeted.
“There is immense scope to boost defence and military-to-military cooperation between both the countries. I am confident India-Tanzania partnership will continue to grow over the coming decades, taking the bilateral relations to greater height,” Rajnath said. In the last few years, India has been focusing on expanding overall Co-operation with the African continent including in areas of defence and security. India’s cumulative investments in Africa stand at USD 70 billion (one billion =100 crores) while it has extended Lines of Credits (LoCs) worth USD 12.26 billion to the continent.