Rear Admiral R.S. Laswai, Commander of Tanzanian Navy, was on an official visit to India from August 29 to September 1, 2016. His visit was to consolidate bilateral naval relations between India and Tanzania and to explore new avenues for naval cooperation.

He held bilateral discussions with Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of the Naval Staff, and other senior officials of the Indian Navy. The Indian and the Tanzanian navies cooperate with each other in training, hydrography as well as interact at multilateral forums like IONS and MILAN. Indian naval ships visit Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam regularly to build ‘bridges of friendship’. Indian Navy ship Trikand is scheduled to visit Dar es Salaam in early September 2016.

Hydrographic cooperation between the two maritime nations has increased post signing of a MoU on hydrography in June 2015. High level exchanges are regularly undertaken between both navies. The maritime relations between the two countries received particular emphasis during the visit of the Prime Mininster Narendra Modi to Tanzania in July 2016 and the visit of Rear Admiral R.S. Laswai, Commander of Tanzanian Navy, to India therefore assumes significance.