Vietnam, Tanzania strengthen political trust, pave way for new cooperation era
WVR - The visit of Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Mahmoud Thabit Kombo to Vietnam took place on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
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| Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son welcomes Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Mahmoud Thabit Kombo in Hanoi on April 28, 2025. (Photo: Quang Hoa) |
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son held talks with Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Mahmoud Thabit Kombo in Hanoi on April 28, marking a key milestone during the latter’s first official visit to Vietnam and participation in celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national reunification.
Welcoming Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo, Deputy Prime Minister Son reaffirmed Vietnam’s policy of prioritising relations with Tanzania in Africa. He called for enhanced exchanges of high-level delegations through Party, State, and National Assembly channels, as well as stronger people-to-people diplomacy. He also proposed that Tanzania consider opening an embassy in Vietnam to deepen political trust and advance bilateral cooperation across multiple sectors.
On economic cooperation, Deputy Prime Minister Son urged diversification of traded goods to boost two-way trade and asked for continued Tanzanian support for Vietnamese enterprises, particularly the Viettel Group, in areas such as digital transformation, e-government, and online public services. He also suggested expediting negotiations on agreements for investment protection and avoidance of double taxation to create a more favourable legal framework for businesses.
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| The two sides hold talks as part of Tanzanian Minister's official trip to Vietnam and attendance at the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national reunification from April 27-30. (Photo: Quang Hoa) |
Minister Kombo expressed Tanzania’s high hopes for expanding and diversifying ties with Vietnam, highlighting areas where his country seeks to learn from Vietnam’s experience, including industrialisation, telecommunications, digital transformation, agricultural processing, post-harvest technologies, and mining.
With its strategic location in East Africa, Tanzania is well-positioned to serve as a gateway for Vietnamese goods to access broader regional markets such as the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Minister Kombo said. He encouraged Vietnamese enterprises to explore business opportunities in Tanzania and increase imports of Tanzanian goods such as cotton and minerals.
Both sides expressed satisfaction with the positive trajectory of bilateral relations. They cited Halotel — a project by the Viettel Group in Tanzania — as a notable success story. Tanzania has also become Vietnam’s leading supplier of raw cashew nuts from Africa, with imports exceeding 240 million USD in the first quarter of 2025, surpassing the total for 2024.
The two ministers agreed to boost exchanges between ministries, agencies, localities, and businesses, and explore cooperation in new fields such as national defence, security, construction, human resource training, leadership development, and peacekeeping under the United Nations framework. They pledged to convene the second meeting of the Joint Committee on Bilateral Cooperation soon to review ongoing initiatives and accelerate negotiations for key economic agreements.
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| Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Mahmoud Thabit Kombo take a group photo with members of the delegation. (Photo: Quang Hoa) |
Vietnam and Tanzania committed to strengthening mutual support at multilateral forums, especially within the United Nations, the African Union (AU), ASEAN, and the EAC. Both sides vowed to coordinate closely on global issues to promote peace, stability, and prosperity in their respective regions.
Deputy Prime Minister Son also called on Tanzania to back ASEAN and Vietnam's position on settling disputes in the East Sea through peaceful means, in accordance with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
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