Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera is on a three-day visit to Tanzania, where he will meet with his counterpart John Magufuli to discuss bilateral trade ties.
Chakwera was sworn into office in June as Malawi’s sixth and newly elected president after beating the outgoing Peter Mutharika in a re-run election. Chakwera garnered 58% of the vote, to Mutharika’s 38%.
In February, Malawi’s Constitutional Court unanimously annulled Mutharika’s election victory from last year and ordered that a new election be held. They held that Mutharika was “not duly elected as president of Malawi”. The court found that some results sheets had been altered with whiteout and that others were fakes or duplicates.
Since coming to power, Chakwera has already attempted to boost regional alliances by visiting Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. Tanzanian President last visited Malawi in April, but at that time Chakwera’s predecessor, Mutharika, was still in power. Nevertheless, the Magufuli administration has shown an eagerness to work with the new Malawian administration as well. In fact, Tanzanian Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan attended Chakwera’s inauguration ceremony.
The two leaders are expected to discuss trade matters and bilateral development projects, such as the bus terminal in Dar es Salaam, which is expected to provide transit to Malawi. According to statistics published by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), bilateral trade between the two nations has increased from $47.8 million in 2015 to over $56 million in 2019. During this period, Malawian exports to Tanzania rose from $11.6 million to $23.6 million.
Accordingly, prior to his departure from Malawi, Chakwera said that he would be inspecting the Port of Dar es Salaam and the Malawi Cargo Center during his visit to see how goods are handled at the center so he can ascertain the “challenges that there are and how best we can resolve them”. During his speech, Chakwera said that Tanzania represents a strategic trade partner and that the two countries have “a lot in common”.
However, neither Chakwera nor Magufuli have yet commented on whether they will be discussed the unresolved boundary dispute on Lake Nyasa as it is known in Tanzania, or Lake Malawi as it is known in Malawi. The lake has been a thorn in bilateral relations since 1967. While Malawi contends that its economy, culture, and national identity are linked to the lake, Tanzania argues that several fishermen live along the shoreline and have ancestral burial places that are now under the lake.
The lake is the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world in terms of volume, and the ninth-largest by area. It is home to more species of fish than any other lake. Hence, the water body holds crucial resources that neither side is willing to forgo. While Tanzania claims that the border between the two countries runs through the middle of the lake, Malawi claims the entire surface of the lake that does not lie in Mozambique, including the waters along Tanzania’s shoreline. Tanzania has in the past taken offence to Malawi launching oil exploration operations in the lake, saying that such activities must be halted until the dispute is settled.
Previous meetings between the heads of state of the two countries have yielded little in terms of conflict resolution. Likewise, a joint permanent commission of cooperation (JPCC) that was established in 2017 was also unable to move the conversation forward. It is expected that this meeting will produce similarly unsatisfying results.
Malawian President Chakwera Meets Tanzanian Counterpart Magufuli, Silent on Lake Dispute
Neither Chakwera nor Magufuli have yet commented on whether they will be discussed the unresolved boundary dispute on Lake Nyasa as it is known in Tanzania, or Lake Malawi as it is known in Malawi.
October 9, 2020
Tanzanian President John Magufuli (L) meets his Malawian counterpart Lazarus Chakwera, October 07 2020 SOURCE: TANZANIA TODAY