Malawi, Tanzania plan meeting to strengthen ties

Governments of Tanzania and Malawi expect to hold a meeting of the joint commission for bilateral cooperation early next year in a deliberate move to cement relationship between the two neighbouring nations, Malawi24 understands.

The Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Wazili Mahiga said in a statement in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday that the envisaged meeting will bring together experts from two nations to deliberate on various issues of cooperation.

The gathering, according to the statement, will also allow experts to deliberate on the challenges facing the bilateral cooperation of the two countries as well as ponder on the new areas that the two countries seek to forge cooperation for mutual benefits.

“The experts will also come up with new areas of cooperation and set strategies of implementing joint projects that will be agreed upon,” said Mahiga, noting that participants attending the meeting will as well discuss joint cooperation in business and investment, transport, energy, tourism and security.

Meanwhile, Mahiga has trashed media reports suggesting that the border dispute between Tanzania and Malawi over Lake Nyasa is being handled by international arbitrators.

A section of media had reported that Tanzania-Malawi border dispute over the lake has recently landed at the United Nations (UN).

But the Tanzanian foreign affairs minister clarified that the dispute is being handled by the panel of retired leaders from Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC).

The panel of mediators is led by former President of Mozambique Joachim Chisano with assistance from former Presidents of Botswana and South Africa, Festus Mogae and Thabo Mbeki respectively. The panel formed by the Forum for Former African Heads of State and Government was tasked to examine various evidences that Tanzania and Malawi had submitted over the disputed Africa’s third biggest lake.

The ministry noted further in its statement that the panel had already met the two sides in Mozambique for preliminary consultation, adding that despite the pending dispute, diplomatic relationship between Tanzania and Malawi remain intact.

“Diplomatic relations between the two nations have been getting deeper day by day in all spheres of life -economic, political and social,” the minister said.