Tanzania Foreign Policy

JNEW FOREIGN POLICY..

TABLE OF CONTENTS:TITLEPAGEI. INTRODUCTION 1'II. TANZANIA'S TRADIONAL FOREIGN POLlCY 4III. SITUATING TANZANIA IN THE PRESENTGLOBAL CONTEXT 6IV. THE NEW FOREIGN POLlCY 11- Principles- Objective's- StrategiesV. POLICY MONITORING AND REViEW 28v

affairs of states, the promotion of African Unity as well assupport for the United Nations (UN) in its developmentand peace agenda which have traditionally been itscornerstone since independence.4. In order to make the new beginning, the United Republicof Tanzania must build a new internal environment,.which is to facilitate change and accommodate newideas. Already, a lot had been done to restructuretheeconomy, to promote greater regard to human rightsand reinforce democracy. In addition the URT shall haveto complement the facilitative internal environment withinternational partnerships in order to create the synergy,which shall enable it to maximize the opportunitiesof co-operation for economic gain and preserve theoptions of the URT as an independentsovereign state.5. In this dualism, pursued in the context of internationaldevelopment and South-South Co-operation, theredefined foreign policy shall target areas of criticalinterest to the country. These shall include thepromotion of good relations with other nations,preservation of our sovereignty, territorial integrityand independence, and the promotion of peace andsecurity. In the economicsphere, the policy shall aimat pursuing trade and investment promotion, securingbetter terms of international trade bilaterally and withinthe framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO),accessing development financing on affordableterms and obtaining sustainable terms of our debtmanagement, promoting industry, harnessing modernscience and technology, protecting the environment2

Policy matters, fostering professionalism, recruitingand training skilled personnel, reaching out to localtechnical and intellectual capacities and involving theprivate sector as well as promotingof diplomacy,Kiswahili as a tooltaking into account that the language isspoken by more than 100 million people world wide ..9. The premise of the redefined foreign policy is that theURT needs to adjust. It has the resources and thepeople to put into effect that adjustment which is nowrequired to take advantage of the opportunities, whichthe new international environment offers, and meet thechallenges of peace, security and development. It hasclear and redefined foreign policy objectives, whichmust be promoted.10. The United Republic of Tanzania has the determinationto succeed, drawing inspiration from its positiveexperiences of the past and building a new foundationfor a robust foreign policy targeted at ensuring that thecountry develops as a free, united and determined tobe a meaningful partner in global development.II. THE URT'S TRADITIONAL FOREIGN POLICY:11. The Presidential Circular No.2 of 1964 issued by ourfounding President, the late Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere,set forth the fundamental principles and objectives ofthe URT's foreign policy. Since then, the conduct andcontent of the foreign policy has been guided by thoseprinciples and objectives,which include, inter alia:• The defence of freedom, justice and equality;4

the developing countries generally, or in promoting thepolicy of non-alignment, URT emerged as a dynamicplayer on the world scene.III. SITUATING THE URT IN THE PRESENT GLOBALCONTEXT:13. The conduct of a country's foreign policy has to find. context in the international environment in which itoperates. It is altruism that, the present internationalenvironment has changed so radically that some of theassumptions on which the URT's foreign policy hadbeen predicated,a) End of the Cold War:no longer hold full relevance.14. The end of the East-West confrontation and the politicsof the cold war, which nourished it, have brought someof the most significant changes that have occurredin the international system. Today, global militaryconfrontation has been replaced by strategic cooperationbetween the erstwhile protagonists of theEast and the West. However the threat to internationalpeace and security posed by nuclear powers stilllingers on. This is occasioned by introduction of newtechnologiesin missile defence systems.15. The end of the Cold War has created new opportunitiesand challenges to Africa. The collapse of East-Westblocs has denied the third world, the leverageof the1960s and the 1970s in terms of defence, security aswell as economic assistance whereby the developingworld had been benefiting from the competition forinfluence. The continent is still struggling to shake6

off the debilitating legacies of wars and conflicts,whose origins can be traced from the cold war. Manyof our countries however, have already shown firmdetermination to emerge from the past and embracethe future. The search for peace in Africa is now acontinental priority. Economic reforms and restructuringar~ firmly on course and so too, is the process of furtherdemocratization as more and more countries in Africaare returning to political pluralism.b) Dwindling Resource Flows:16. Economically, the changes in Eastern Europe havehad significant impact on the pattern of flows ofinvestmentcapital, as well as on the lending policiesand programmes of the Bretton Woods Institutions,much to the detriment of Africa. The Donor Countriesare rethinking development assistance and movinggradually into trade and economic co-operation. Thepreferential trade arrangements of the past are beingeroded as the WTO rules take effect. Overall, there isserious reversal of resource flows to Africa in generaland Tanzania in particular.17. The decrease in the investment resource flows toAfrica has coincided with the collapse of the commodityprices and a fall in the levels of the official developmentassistance to our countries. As a result, developingcountries, including the URT, have been deprived ofthe financial ability to fulfil their internal responsibilitiesof providing social services and funding developmentor to meet international obligations such as externaldebt repayment. The result has been the accumulation7

of the debt stock and the attendant higher interestpayments, which now gobble up disproportionatepercentagesof our total revenue. The resultant povertylevels in the developing world are unacceptably highand they undermine our collective humanity as well asthe foundations of peace and social order .. c) Liberalization and globalization:18. While the United Republic of Tanzania and the greaterpart of the developing world struggle to strengthentheir economies, the international environment isgetting tougher and more complex as the processesof economic liberalization, and globalization nowpose the challenges of adaptation and participation.The development of science, technology and growthof international trade has shrunk the world into aglobal village and brought to it new and aggressiveplayers. Those alreadybig and strong Trans-nationalCorporations are merging and consolidating operationson a global scale.19. Likewise, Nations are coming together into strategicpartnerships to take advantage of the economiesof scale in the expanding economic space - fromthe North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), theEuropean Union (EU) to the Association of the SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In Africa too, the OAUhas embarked on the creation of the African EconomicCommunity (AEC) by the year 2034. Similar efforts areunderway within the Common Market for Eastern andSouthern Africa (COMESA) as well as the SouthernAfrican Development Community (SADC) and the8

East African Co-operation (EAC). In this integrationprocess, governments are acting collectively to reachout to international partners in order to managechanges affecting trade, financial flows and the globalenvironment.d) Diminishing Role of the United Nations:20. There is a growing concern that the UN is progressivelysteering away from the development agenda and moretowards meeting peace and humanitarianemergencies- a task it has attempted to fulfil with mixed results,essentially due to inadequate funding and constraintsof political mandates. The UN overstretch - in financeand involvement - has necessitated an increasing rolefor the regional organizations and arrangements inmatters of peace and security, particularly now whenthe process of integrationis underway.e) Resurgence of Internal Conflicts:21. The present international political environment is nowalso characterizedby the resurgence of internal conflictsas a result of the breakdown of the Old World order andfailure in leadership. In many places in Africa, MiddleEast, Asia, Europe, South America and the Caribbean,internal conflicts and wars have brought life loses andextreme suffering leading to an upsurge of refugees,internally displaced persons and staggering cost todevelopment. Intensive global diplomacy and immenseresources have been consecrated to the search forsolutions to these conflicts. In this, it is Africa, however,which has by far, suffered the most, and have to and9

therefore to which most effort at peace and stabilityshould be directed.f) The end of Apartheid22. Apartheid was finally defeated and a democratic, nonracialSouth Africa came into being, thus marking the fullachievement of a cardinal objective of our foreign policy.The end of apartheid paves the way to directing ourefforts into bringing African conflicts to an end. The entryof the new South Africa in the community of Nations ofAfrica has certainly strengthened our ranks and broughta strong dynamic partner to our regional developmentefforts. The economic strength and scientific know-howof South Africa, if creatively harnessed, stand to be apowerful force for rapid economic transformation anddevelopmentin our region...23. New challenges such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic,malaria and other communicable diseases, drugtrafficking, international, terrorism, illegal migration,upsurge in the number of refugees proliferation andillicit trade in small arms as well as light weapons haveemerged. Issues of sustainable development, gendermainstreaming, promotion of democracy, human rights,rule of law and good governance have also taken acentre stage.24. All those mentioned changes and other contemporaryissues that have emerged in recent times havecompelled the United Republic of Tanzania to reviewits Foreign Policy.10

IV. THE NEW FOREIGNPOLICY:A) Principles:j25. Given the economic and socio-political shift that hasoccurred in the domestic and international scene,there is need to adopt Taznainia's foreign policy to this~ew situation placing priority on the securing the corenational interests as a sovereign state. Tanzania's newForeign Policy shall manifest itself in active internationalengagement, which is basically leveraged upon thepursuit of economic objectives,while at the same timepreserving the gains of the past and consolidating thefundamental principles of Tanzania's traditional foreignpolicy. The principles of the Foreign Policy shall be;• Safeguarding the sovereignty, territorial integrityand political independence of the United Republic ofTanzania;• Defence of freedom, justice, human rights, equalityand democracy;• Promotion of good neighbourliness;• Promotion of African Unity;• Promotion of deeper economic cooperation with ourdevelopmentpartners;,) • Support for the practice of the policy of non-alignmentand South-SouthCo-operation;• Supportforthe United Nations in its search for internationaleconomic development, peace and security.11

B} Objectives:26. The objectives of the new URT Foreign Policy shall be:• To project, promote and protect URT's political,economic, social and cultural interests through activeand sustainableeconomic diplomacy;• To ensure that URT's relations with other nationsand international entities are also driven inline witheconomic interests;• To build a self-sustaining economy, preservation ofnational peace and security as well as supportingregional and international endeavour for the creation ofa better and peaceful World;• To accelerate the political and social economicintegration for the region;• To create the necessary conditions which shall enableURT to participate effectively in the regional and globaleconomies and international negotiations.C) Strategies:27. The task before the new foreign policy shall be both ofadjustment and change to face the new challenges ofdevelopment through economic diplomacy, as well asof consolidation to preserve the gains of the past. TheMinistry, which is vested with the mandate of directingother Ministries and Institutions on foreign policymatters, in accordance with the Presidential guidancegiven at the 1999 Ambassadors' Conference in Dares-Salaam,shall need clear strategies to meet thosechallenges.12

a) Building a Facilitative Internal Environment:• To create an interface of both internal and externaldeterminants of growth and development;• To change the attitude and priorities and liberalisethe economy in order to streamline government andbureaucraticprocesses;• To create an enabling domestic environment forincreased economic performance, and making theUnited Republic of Tanzania a safe, stable, profitableand attractive investment destination;• To formulate an organizational arrangement receptiveto change, and administrative procedures that arewell adjusted and realigned to the needs of economicdiplomacy.b) Forging International Partnership:• Strengthening partnership with governments,intergovernmental and international organizations aswell as commercial entities abroad;• Dealing with financial, monetary, industrial andinternational trade institutions;• Making business and economic development thecentral issue and focus of Tanzania's envoys and otherplayers in the internationalscene;• Creating an appropriate institutional framework forforging international partnership.c) Prioritizing Economic Diplomacy:28. Economic diplomacy shall constitute contants andengagements, with other countries, intergovernmental13

organisations, and international entities. This shall involve:• Steering international processes towards contributingto Tanzania's efforts at economic development throughelaborating arrangements for accessing technicalassistance,financing, fair trading and investments;• Mainstreaming economic issues to the extent thateven political commitments such as conflict resolution;promotion of human rights and others, shall be perceivedas permitting conducise (attractive) environment foreconomic co-operationand development;• Pursuing a result-based foreign policy with specifictime-limited objectives, which shall be monitoredaccountable service.d) Redefining Bilateral Diplomacy:29. In the light of the fact that bilateral relations betweencountries is the genesis of diplomacy, bilateraldiplomacy shall continue to play an important role indetermining the course of world events. The UnitedRepublic of Tanzania shall therefore:• Refocus bilateral diplomacy within a comprehensivedevelopment context in which economic objectivesshall become the driving force of our new diplomacy;• Endeavour to improve and deepen the scope of itsbilateral relations emphasizing on economic, industrial,trade and technological co-operation with individualcountries, regions, and groupings;• Seek to secure from our bilateral partners, greater supportfor and involvement in, our development efforts as well asby way of increased funding through official development14

assistance as well as in advocating development supportfor our country in the multilateral fora;• Promote trade, investments and tourism as priorityfunctions;• Advocate debt relief measures in her regular encounterswith other countries and their leaders.• Promote good relations with host governments;• Promote cooperation through joint commissions formonitoring and co-ordinating activities of mutualeconomicbenefits.e) Strengthening Multilateral Diplomacy:30. The pursuit of common ideals and actions hasincreasingly assumed greater importance ininternational relations. The United Republic of Tanzaniashall therefore seek to pursue them vigorously at thevarious international fora:• Support the reform and reinforcement of the UN andits Agencies as the primary forum of Multilateralism aswell as the international system particularly WTO andthe Bretton Woods Institutions;• Target critical areas to influence the agenda especiallyin the conduct of the new global economic interaction;• Strengthen its position as part of a cohesive group ofcountries, which collectively seek to achieve a commonobjective;• Reinvigorate its multilateral diplomacy so as to demonstrateability to playa meaningful role in fostering solidarity;15

• Ensure that its multilateral diplomacy puts emphasis onthe economic relations with other countries, as well aswith financial and commercialentities;• Give priority to relations or processes which promoteTanzania's ability to develop a strong economy andcontribute to extricating the country from dependenceon foreign aid;• Make sure that the multilateral set-up and interactionssafeguard the short and long-term implication to Tanzania'ssovereignty as a nation and dignity as a people.f) Promoting Good Neighbourliness:31. Good neighbourliness is sine qua non in the daily andpermanent interaction between states. To realize thisimportant objective, the United Republic of Tanzaniashall focus on the following:• Securing our borders and sustaining goodneighbourliness;• Maintaining peace and stability;• Promoting trade, investments and economic cooperation;• Using the existing historical bonds and geographicalstrategic position for social, political and economicadvantagesto the people and the neighbourhood.g) Enhancing Regional Peace and Security:32. In the promotion of peace and stability, both in andoutside the African continent, the United Republic of16

Tanzania shall strive to co-operate with other countrieswith a view to:• Rendering its full support to the efforts at preventing,managing and resolving intra and inter-state conflicts;• Co-ordinating, collective regional action in preventivediplomacy and, where necessary, in peace making,peace building or peace keeping;• Supporting democratic process in the continent;• Co-operating with other countries to promote thedemilitarization of the Indian Ocean and its exclusiveuse for peaceful purposes;• Extending support to the Declaration of the IndianOcean as a Zone of Peace.h) Strengthening Regional Economic Integration:33. Intheemergingworld orderofglobalisation characterizedby growing economic power of the industrializedworld, the URT realizes that strength of the small anddeveloping countries lies in their unity of purpose andaction. Therefore, in this context, Tanzania's survivalshall depend on its active participation in the regionalgroupings within its vicinity. The URT shall enhance itsparticipation in the East African Community (EAC), theSouthern African Development Community (SADC) aswell as the Indian Ocean Rim Association for RegionalCooperation(lOR-ARC).17

i) E.A.C34. The countries of the East African Community havea unique relationship arising from culture, history,geography and human contact. Due to the socioeconomic importance of this Region, the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania shall strive to:• Promote and strengthen EAC by taking advantages ofthe commonality existing in the sub-region in order toenhance and strengthen economic co-operation andsocio-politicalfraternity;• Ensure that this co-operation facilitates greaterbalanced trade, investment, as well as industrial,transport, communication, scientific and cultural cooperation,so as to ensure that tangible benefits accrueto the people;• Continue to support the principle of subsidiarity, placingemphasiS on the full involvementof the private sector,enhancing the role of the civil society and women in theprocess of integration;• Support efforts aimed at harmonization andconvergence of social, political and economic policieswith a view to transforming EAC into Customs Union, aCommon Market, subsequently a Monetary Union andultimately a Political Federation.ii) SADC:35. Having shared with the SADC countries bonds ofpolitical solidarity and common history of struggle18I

against colonialism and apartheid, in addition to havingsimilar natural resources and wealth in abundance,URT shall take advantage of complementarity thatexists within the community to promote its industry,trade, and scientific knowledge as well as to attractinvestment in the country. In this respect, the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania shall endeavour to:• Promote the active involvement of its private sectorwithin the commercial partnership of the community;• Promote SADC as a forum for consultations on issuesof common concern to the region and advocate jointundertakingsin areas of common interest;• Support and promote ideals of SADC, including those ofpeace,democracy,human rights, defence and securitycooperation in full recognition that political stability inthe region shall inspire investment confidence andother development endeavours.iii) INDIAN OCEAN RIM - ASSOCIATION FORREGIONAL CO-OPERATION (lOR-ARC)36. The countries bordering the Indian Ocean in theirdiversity offer vast opportunities to enhance economicintegration and co-operation. The URT shall therefore,seek to promote active economic co-operation, whichexists within the full reaches of the lOR-ARC region. TheURT shall accordingly seek to promote the lOR-ARCas a framework for enhancing economic interactionof the member States, and in this regard endeavourto promote the objectives of the lOR-ARC bearing in19

mind the role of the civil society and the private sectorin constructive partnership with governments to bringabout developmentof the region.i) Upholding the African Union (AU).37. The United Republic of Tanzania diplomacy has overtheyears won recognition and respect in the Organisationof African Unity, which, in July 2001, transformed itselfinto the AfricanUnion (AU). The URT has ratified theConstitutive Act of the African Union, which reaffirmsAfrica's determination for greater unity on a step-bystepbasis. The URT shall put its full diplomaticbehind the Africa Union in supporting:weight• The mission to bring peace, forge unity, solidarityand promote economic development of our continentthrough co-operationand integration;• The regional economic groupings as the buildingblocks of the future community, beginning with theharmonization of the policies and programmes of thesecommunities and aligning them with the objective ofconvergingultimately, into the Pan African enterprise;• The objective to establish the necessary conditions,which will enable the continent to play its rightful role inthe global economy and in internationalj) Reaffirming Non-Alignment:negotiations.38. While the world political circumstances, which gavebirth to no-alignment, have dramatically changed, theraisond'tre of the policy of active and independent20

involvement by the countries of the economic South ininternational affairs remains valid. The United republicof Tanzania shall therefore:• Reaffirm the continued relevance of the No-AlignedMovement as a framework for consultation and cooperationwithin the South as it seeks to play an activeand rightful part in internationalaffairs;• Advocate, through its economic diplomacy, thetransformation of the Movement into a powerfulinstrument for the promotion of trade, investment andeconomic co-operationwithin the South;• Urge the co-ordination of the activities of the Movement andthose of the Group of 77 and China, both as instruments ofchange and economic progress in the South.k) Promoting South-South Co-operation:39. South-South co-operation remains a framework forsolidarity and collective action by the countries of theSouth. Due to the threat of being marginalized bythe countries of the economic North in the processof globalization, South-South Co-operation becomesimperative. For this reason the united Republic ofTanzania shall strive to:• Use the South as a framework for economic cooperationtowards collective self-reliance as well as anopportunity for expansion of commercialcontacts;and diplomatic• Promote trade, investments, transfer of technology21

UN with a view to ensuring that policies art targeted toassisting countries to meet the challenges of economicgrowth and development;• Emphasise the eradication of poverty as a keydeterminant of development as well as ensuring peaceand stability;• Strive to make the UN to move progressively from thetask of meeting emergencies and enter into a concrete,and sustained partnership for development;• Support the periodic and balanced reforms of theUN institutions in a way that promotes efficiency,transparency and democracy so as to strengthen itsability to meet the current challenges of developmentand peace.n) Re-addressing Financial Issues and External Debt:42. In dealing with financial and external debt issues, theUnited Republic of Tanzania shall:• Engage the financial and monetary institutions such asthe World Bank, the IMF, the Organisation for EconomicCo-operation and Development (OECD), the G.8, theEuropean Union and other relevant institution, for thepurpose of negotiating access to financial resourcesand better terms for debt repayment;• Pursue the issues of finance and the debt burden in acollective negotiating framework with other developingandheavily indebted countries;• Advocate for debt relief and cancellation;24

• Intensify consultations and co-operation with thedonors and creditor community in order to ensure thatefforts at economic reform for development are notunderminedby the burdens of debt servicing and lackof adequate financial resources;• Advocate-the relaxation of the borrowing terms so as topermit easier access to funding.0) Co-operating with Multinational Corportions:43. Multinational Corporations have grown in size andscope of involvement to the extent that they are nowpioneering economic globalization and have becomeimmense players on the international scene. In order todevelop creative and active economic partnerships withthe corporate world, the United Republic of Tanzaniashall:• Engage the banking, trading, agricultural and industrialinstitutions and services in a mutually beneficialcommercial relationship, while preserving options asan independentand sovereign country.• Access commercial capital for investment available inthe corporate world;• Encourage the exchange of economic experiences andestablish institutional arrangements for the transfer ofscience and technology available in the corporate worldto engender a scientific revolution which shall enablethe URT to industrialise;• Seek joint economic ventures so as to benefit from25