MOZAMBICAN President Filipe Nyusi is today expected to arrive in the country for a four-day official tour.

January Makamba, the Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation minister said at a press conference yesterday that the visit ending on Thursday shall further cement bilateral relations.

The Mozambican leader will officiate at the 48th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF), after holding as the guest of honour, noting that tomorrow  President Samia Suluhu Hassan will hold talks with her Mozambican counterpart.

The talks will focus on strengthening trade, investments, defence, education and health, where the two leaders shall witness the signing of various memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in those spheres before holding a joint press conference.

The minister asserted that the visit is vital for Tanzania as President Nyusi is concluding his second term in office, thus bidding farewell to the Tanzanian public.

Mozambique and Tanzania have cordial relations predating Mozambique’s independence in 1975, as its liberation party FRELIMO was largely using the border with Tanzania to organise the armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule.

FRELIMO founder leader Dr Eduardo Mondlane was killed in a ghastly parcel bomb incident in Dar es Salaam in 1969 and buried in Tanzania, with relations growing bigger as President Julius Nyerere coordinated diplomatic efforts towards the finalising of colonial rule in Southern Africa up to 1980 when Zimbabwe attained majority rule.

In 1977, Tanzania and Mozambique signed an agreement to establish a Joint Permanent Commission (JPC) but due to the low economic activity in border regions of the two countries, not much was achieved despite holding a total of 15 meetings of the commission since then.

With reforms being accelerated and other challenges cropping up, there is greater room for strengthening cooperation in defence and security, immigration, trade, investment, tourism, agriculture and transport, officials say.

Tanzania has been in the forefront to support Mozambique overcome various security challenges, the minister noted, citing the country’s participation in peacekeeping efforts in Mozambique.

Terrorist groups who earlier failed to operate in the southern regions of Tanzania decamped to the northern part of the vast Cabo Delgado Province in Mozambique, also spreading terror to Niassa and Nampula provinces.

President Nyusi will proceed to Zanzibar for a private visit before returning to Mozambique via Abeid Amani Karume International Airport, the minister added.