DAR ES SALAAM/NEW DELHI, 12 September 2004 — Indian President Abdul Kalam arrived in Dar es Salaam yesterday at the start of a four-day state visit to Tanzania.
“The Indian president’s tour, at the invitation of his Tanzanian counterpart Benjamin Mkapa, is aimed at strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries,” the Tanzanian Foreign Ministry said.
Kalam was met at Dar es Salaam International Airport by Mkapa, senior officials and hundreds of Dar es Salaam residents.
After welcoming ceremonies Kalam was driven into the city for talks expected to focus on bilateral economic and cultural cooperation.
Kalam was due to attend a state dinner in his honor late yesterday.
Today, he is to pay a one-day visit to the semi-autonomous Island of Zanzibar for talks with Zanzibari President Amani Karume, before returning to Dar es Salaam in the evening to meet members of the Indian community in Tanzania.
Kalam will also deliver a public address at a function organized by the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Foundation tomorrow, before leaving for South Africa the following day on the next leg of his week-long African tour.
Kalam embarked on a weeklong trip to Tanzania and South African, combining his own quest for knowledge and progress with New Delhi’s “Focus Africa” policy.
Kalam’s second foreign trip since assuming office two years ago will see him meeting Nelson Mandela, the liberator of South Africa, and also paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi, the liberator of India from the colonial yoke. The first Indian president to visit South Africa, Kalam left yesterday morning by a special chartered flight for Dar es Salam.
“This is not just a ceremonial visit but also a substantive one,” said an official of the India’s External Affairs Ministry.
The president has been invited to interact with heads of state of 53 African nations forming the Pan-African Parliament on Sept. 16 and will be the only non-African leader to attend it. India will sign memorandums of understanding with Tanzania as well as South Africa for close cooperation in the field of information and communication technology (ICT).
India will also waive loans worth Rs. 400 million ($8.75 million) previously given to Tanzania, a nation that is seeking cooperation with India in health and education.
This comes on the eve of a CEOs forum of captains of industry of India and South Africa, to be launched next month, with industrialist Ratan Tata chairing the Indian side.
As against a period when the two countries were bitterly divided over apartheid with New Delhi having no diplomatic ties with Pretoria for nearly half a century till the early nineties, the two countries now share growing diplomatic, defense and commercial ties.
They are conducting joint military exercises and are also finalizing a deal for the purchase of long-range artillery guns for the Indian Army.
The two nations are also part of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) grouping that is seeking to become the spearhead of a developing nations’ counterpart of G-8, the rich nations’ club.
Kalam has said “no” to safaris in the land abounding in some of the world’s best-known national parks and has set himself a frenetic work schedule in South Africa, Tanzania as well as in Zanzibar.
Kalam has expressed eagerness to visit universities in both nations and interact with children whom he has sought to engage and inspire with the idea that young minds are the building blocks of progress in any country.
