SPEECH BY H.E. BARAKA LUVANDA, AMBASSADOR OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA TO JAPAN AT MATSUDA TOWN OFFICE, 
18 NOVEMBER 2023

 

Mister Hiroyuki Motoyama, 
Mayor of Matsuda Town,


Mister Koichi Tashiro, 
Deputy Town Mayor,


Mr. Kazuyuki Josen,
Head of Education Board, Matsuda Town,

Mr. Shiino Koichi, 
Manager, Education Board,


Dear Participants,


Ladies and Gentlemen.

 

Habari za Asubuhi!
Oha you Gozaimasu!
A very Good Morning to All!


1. Let me begin by sincerely thanking our Dear Friend, and organizer of this visit, Mister Suzuki Koji-san for, not only conceiving it, but also for prevailing on it and putting up a very tight working programme. And thank you for the generous hospitality accorded to us for which we cannot thank you quite enough.


2. I am also most pleased and thankful to Your Worship, The Mayor for endorsing Koji’s idea and especially, for making time out of your usual busy schedule to meet with us. This is not a small thing at all, and we do not take it for granted.

Taking advantage of this platform today, let me reiterate our profound appreciations for the long and enduring association built up between The City of Matsuda and my Embassy.

3. By and large, this visit has presented to us yet another rare opportunity to put faces on the names that we have heard or seen before. Visits such as this one is always a good way to keep friendships warm and sentiments alive.

And therefore, I look very much look forward to enjoying the glamour scenery of Matsuda and Oduwara Cities during these two days.


Mister Mayor,

4. It would be a terrible protocol omission on my part if I skipped to express our profound and earnest appreciations to you for the strong and warm Congratulatory Statement you graciously shared with us during the 60th Anniversary of Tanganyika in December 2021.

I was still struggling to settle down by then, plus, we were still under very strict observance of COVID-19 protocols. And therefore, I could not make a- thank- you courtesy call on you after that colorful event.

It seems to me that it is quite appropriate therefore for me to be here personally today, to express our profound appreciations. Thank you very much, Mister Mayor.

Your Worship, The Mayor


5. I would like also to take this opportunity to express our truly commendations to The City of Matsuda and, to you good self, for the material support to Tanzania through the generous supply of the firefighting engines in the recent past. We thank you for that and we hope and treasure that you may be able to extend similar contributions to us as we grapple with fighting against fire tragedies in the country.  

6. It is important to underscore at this juncture that the relations between Japan and Africa, and, certainly between Japan and Tanzania have indeed lived up to the spiritual exhortations of Buddha that,  (quote)….“You should respect each other, follow my teachings, and refrain from disputes; you should not, like water and oil, repel each other, but you should, like milk and water, mingle together.”

7. In the relations between Japan and Tanzania, broadly and, between Matsuda and Tanzania, specifically, the People and administration have lived up to these spiritual exhortations. The Japanese people have always respected us, and neither the deep and wide oceans that separate us, nor the language barriers and absence of colonial links between Japan and Tanzania have prevented us from mingling like milk and water. We sincerely thank you for that.

8. Japan and Tanzania continue to see eye to eye in a variety of ways at both bilateral and at multilateral level. And there is great hope that our bilateral cooperation will thrive for innumerable period, and this is evident from the perspective of the present interactions through Government to Government; Government to Business and, also through people-to-people connections. You may wish to learn that throughout all these years our historical, cultural, and emotional ties with Japan have continued to bind us together so firmly.

9. Let me end my remarks by welcoming you to visit with us at the Embassy of Tanzania in Tokyo. But it is my earnest desire to see many people from this City visit The Unforgettable Tanzania - The Land of Natural Wonders.

10. Thank you for your kind attention; Asante sana; Domo Arigato Gozaimashita