There is immense scope to boost defence & military to military cooperation, Rajnath Singh said

India and Tanzania have decided to set up a Task Force to prepare a Five Year Future Roadmap for enhancing defence cooperation between both the countries. This was agreed to during bilateral talks between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Tanzanian Minister of Defence and National Service Stergomena Lawrence Tax in New Delhi on Friday.

The two sides also agreed to hold the next Joint Defence Cooperation meeting in Tanzania at an early date, said India's Ministry of Defence.

Additionally, Singh invited his Tanzanian counterpart to the India-Africa Defence Dialogue and DefExpo which is scheduled to be held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat between October 18-22 this year.

"Reviewed the full range of India-Tanzania defence ties during the fruitful meeting with the Tanzanian Defence Minister, Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax in New Delhi. India & Tanzania share the same strategic space. India considers Tanzania as a major Western Indian Ocean Player," Singh tweeted after the meeting.

"There is immense scope to boost defence & military to military cooperation between both the countries. I’m confident India-Tanzania partnership will continue to grow over the coming decades, taking the bilateral relations to greater height," the Indian Defence Minister wrote in another tweet.

According to the ministry, a wide range of issues concerning bilateral, regional and defence industrial cooperation were discussed during the meeting. The two Ministers reviewed the existing military-to-military activities and discussed ways to enhance cooperation in all domains with a focus on defence industry cooperation.

Earlier, the Tanzanian Minister of Defence and National Service visited the National War Memorial and paid homage to the fallen heroes by laying wreath at the monument. She was accorded a Ceremonial Guard of Honour before her bilateral meeting with Singh.

She would also be visiting Wargaming Development Centre and Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region before departing for Hyderabad for interaction with Indian defence industries.