Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete on Tuesday commissioned two new navy patrol ships, saying his country will continue strengthening defense of its territorial sovereignty.
“This is only the beginning. We have plans to bring in even bigger navy ships,” he said.
Kikwete said that the government will keep on increasing defense budget since there was no substitute in defending the country’s territorial sovereignty.
He said with the ships, which were built by China’s military equipment manufacturer Poly Technologies, the country will be in a better position to combat illegal fishing and piracy in the high seas and protect deep sea gas and oil exploration installments.
“There are big ships from developed countries which are stealing lucrative fishes like tuna in our waters. In the recent past we had 28 piracy acts in our waters and in five accounts the pirates hijacked the ships,” he said.
“Pirates even attacked an exploration ship but our soldiers managed to apprehend them..but with these two ships we can now confidently and quickly intervene in all those threats, he said.
He commended the Chinese government for being a supportive partner in empowering the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces since its inception in 1964.
The Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Lu Youqing said Tanzania remained a close friend of China in all aspects from military to development projects.
He said by acquiring the two ships, Tanzanian navy will now be in a better position to protect its maritime resources.
The Minister of Defence and National Service Hussein Mwinyi said navy forces had already succeeded in reducing piracy and illegal fishing activities in the country even before the acquisition of the two ships. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
