Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan will today arrive in Rwanda for a two-day State visit on a special invitation from the Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
A statement issued on Sunday by the Directorate of Presidential Communications, noted that while in Rwanda, President Samia will hold official talks with her counterpart, President Kagame.
Equally, President Samia will witness the signing of several bilateral agreements as well as speak to the press in Kigali.
“The two-day State visit is anticipated to strengthen further the two countries existing bilateral relations,” read part of the statement.
It will be her maiden visit to Rwanda after assuming office in March 2021.
The trip to Rwanda, makes it the fourth journey after her other three visits in the East African Community (EAC) region between April and July, this year.
The EAC countries which President Samia visited include Uganda, Kenya and Burundi. Rwanda and Tanzania enjoy close bilateral relations in multiple aspects, especially trade.
On several occasion in 2018 and 2019 President Kagame jetted in Tanzania on different missions. President Samia’s visit follows recent high-level meetings between top officials from the two countries.
The most recent meeting occurred on July 16th this year, when Rwanda’s Minister of ICT, Paula Ingabire, met her Tanzanian counterpart, Faustine Ndugulile, to review submarine cable infrastructures in Tanzania that support communication services to Rwanda.
On July 9th this year, Rwanda’s Ambassador to Tanzania, Major General Charles Karamba, met Tanzania’s Minister of Defence Elias Kwandikwa in Dodoma, where they discussed “mutual interest” topics.
According to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade, in 2019 Rwanda imports from Tanzania were 224.54 million US dollars (about 520.7bn/-), while Rwanda exports to Tanzania were 5.1million US dollars (about 11.8bn/-).
Rwanda and Tanzania enjoy cordial relations and cooperation in the areas of politics, infrastructure, economy and security.
Tanzania is considered a major development partner where over 70 per cent of Rwanda’s imports and exports are transited through.
Both countries have a joint mega project to build ‘Isaka-Kigali’, a 532-kilometer railway expected to be completed at a cost of USD $ 3.6 billion.
The project is much anticipated between both countries especially for Rwanda as a landlocked nation. The long awaited railway linking to Rwanda to neighboring countries is expected to give relief to traders catering for expensive cost of land cargo transport.
Early June, this year, President Kagame through his special envoys and Rwanda’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Dr Vincent Biruta, reassured Tanzania of speedy implementation of the regional Rusumo Falls hydroelectric project and the standard gauge railway (SGR).
The pledge was extended while President Samia held talks with the Rwandan Special Envoy at the State House in the capital Dodoma.
President Kagame pledged to support the joint execution of the Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project and the SGR project that will connect the Rwandan capital Kigali and Isaka dry port in Tanzania. Kagame observed that the two projects were crucial in supporting economic development of the two eastern African countries.
During the meeting, President Samia also tasked the joint permanent commission between Tanzania and Rwanda to ensure fish fillets from the country’s northwestern city—Mwanza are exported by the Rwanda’s national carrier—RwandAir.
She wanted the commission to also discuss and streamline implementation of the standard gauge railway project connecting Kigali’s city to Isaka town in Tanzania as efforts to easy movement of goods especially from the Dar es Salaam port.
President Samia, however, instructed the commission to speed up the construction of inland dry port terminal at Isaka in Mwanza.
