RWANDA – TANZANIA: President Kagame in Tanzania on a 2-day state visit

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame is scheduled to arrive in Tanzania on Thursday for a two-day working visit during which he will meet with the country’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

Kagame and his delegation will be welcomed at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam by Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Minister Stergomena Tax.

The two leaders will hold talks later in the day at the country’s state house. President Kagame will depart from Tanzania on Friday.

The ministry did not disclose any particular agenda for the presidential talks, but Kagame’s visit comes amid simmering tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), both of which share borders with Tanzania.

Also likely to come up during the discussions are reported peace talks between Ethiopia’s federal government and the rebel Oromo Liberation Army in Tanzania’s Zanzibar archipelago.

The AP news agency quoted a spokesperson for the rebel group saying the ‘preliminary’ peace talks, which Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed initially announced last Sunday, formally kicked off in Zanzibar on Tuesday.

The Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation ministry said in a press statement yesterday that,upon jetting into Dar es Salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Airport, Kagame and his delegation would be received the sector minister, Dr Stergomena Tax.

The Rwandese leader would thereafter proceed to the State House for an audience with his host, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, followed by a joint press conference on various issues.

Strengthening bilateral links in trade, investment and other areas of cooperation between the two countries is slated to top the list during the State House talks.

The more pronounced aspect of bilateral relations is cooperating in strategic sectors, especially transport, where the standard gauge railway and overall use of the Dar es Salaam port keep coming up for periodic consultations.

Kagame last visited Tanzania in 2019 and held talks with then President John