The 15th Session of Rwanda - Tanzania Joint Permanent Commission (JPC) was held in Dar es Salaam from 25th to 28th November 2021 to discuss bilateral cooperation matters between the two sister countries.

Both delegations were led by the respective Ministers of Foreign Affairs who were accompanied by their other colleagues from other sectors and other Senior Government Officials.

The meeting reviewed implementation status of decisions of the 14^th JPC session which was held in Rubavu, Rwanda in 2016 clustered in three sectors of Political and Diplomatic consultations, Transport and Infrastructure development, Economic considerations of Trade, Investment and Industry, and other Productive sectors.

The meeting also laid strategies for fast tracking implementation of decisions of the two Heads of State and operationalizing the various MoUs that were signed on 2nd August 2021 during the visit of H. E President Samia Suluhu Hassan to Kigali.

During his opening remarks, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Relations and International Cooperation, Dr. Vincent Biruta said that the agreement reached had blessings from the two countries’ Heads of State, and will be an effective way for enhancing and consolidating bilateral cooperation framework between the two countries.

“When President Samia Suluhu Hassan paid a visit to Rwanda in August this year and met President Paul Kagame they discussed various issues that helped fast-track the agreements reached today.’ Dr. Biruta said.

He expressed optimism that the agreement reached would be effected within the set timeframes.

On her part,  Tanzania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Ambassador Liberata Mulamula appreciated the Republic of Rwanda for accepting the invitation to come and enhance the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

She expressed Tanzania’s readiness to implement all the recommendations from the 15th JPC meeting including cooperation in foreign affairs, infrastructure development like the Isaka-Kigali SGR project, trade and transport facilitation, cooperation in the fields of Tourism, among many other new areas of cooperation.  

The Ministerial Session of the JPC was preceded by that  of Permanent Secretaries and Senior Officials who discussed and agreed on the various matters and later submitted recommendations to the Ministers for endorsement.

After the meeting, both parties penned the MoU on Cooperation in Defense in addition to the Agreed Minutes.