Russia’s President Vladimir Putin arrives for a meeting on Ukraine’s
crisis with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko alongside European
leaders, yesterday on the sidelines of the 10th Asia-Europe meeting in
Milan. PHOTO | AFP
By The Citizen Reporters
In Summary
- Although Foreign Affairs ministry neither confirmed nor denied the reports, sources in the diplomatic mission confided to The Citizen on Saturday that there have been behind-the-scenes activities to ensure the success of the visit.
Although Foreign Affairs ministry neither confirmed nor denied the reports, sources in the diplomatic mission confided to The Citizen on Saturday that there have been behind-the-scenes activities to ensure the success of the visit.
The minister for Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation, Mr Bernard Membe, declined to confirm reports on the tour,
but revealed that he would be travelling to Moscow next month to honour
an invitation from his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Mr Membe said he had no information about the
visit and that any development on the said tour, if any, would be known
after his visit.
“What I can tell you at the moment is that I have
been invited to Moscow next month. I will definitely go, and I will only
be in a position to say anything upon our discussion,” he said.
The Russian embassy in Dar es Salaam said it could not confirm on the visit for it had no information from Moscow.
“What I know is that our foreign affairs minister
met with his Tanzanian counterpart in New York during the Security
Council summit. The visit you are talking about could be one of the
issues they discussed,” said a senior official at the embassy. Putin’s
tour will come just over a year since Tanzania received leaders of two
global superpowers — Chinese President Xi Jinping in March last year
and US President Barack Obama three months later.
The timing and the political implications of the
Russian leader’s visit to Tanzania is an issue already generating
reactions from international relations experts and other observers.
One thing that is clear is that Mr Putin is likely
to take advantage of the tour to promote once strong economic and
political relationships the two countries previously enjoyed before the
fall of communism in the early 1990s.
Experts also say Tanzania, which is struggling to
develop its gas and oil industry following the discovery of huge
deposits of natural gas, stands good chances of benefiting from the tour
of the leader of a country with great expertise in the area.
On the other hand they say, Mr Putin will want to
secure some business agreements for Russia oil and natural gas companies
at this time the Eastern country is facing difficulties in meeting
domestic and export obligations.
Ms Saumu Jumanne, an assistant lecturer at the Dar
es Salaam University College of Education, said that it did not come as
a surprise that the Russian president plans a tour of Tanzania after
the US and Chinese presidents.
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