Tanzania-Malawi border dispute talks deadlocked

LILONGWE – Talks on a long-dormant border dispute between Malawi and Tanzania, reignited by a quest for oil exploration, ended in a deadlock Saturday, the two countries said.

‘After frank and spirited discussions between the two countries, we have concluded that our differences still remain,’ Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said following the talks focused on Lake Malawi, where Lilongwe has awarded an oil exploration licence to a British firm.Membe said the meeting agreed to hold a fresh round of talks in Tanzania from September 10-14.’We have failed to reach a common ground, to narrow our differences,’ said Malawi’s Foreign Minister Ephraim Mganda ChiumeAt stake is a largely undeveloped swathe of Lake Malawi, where Lilongwe has awarded a licence to Surestream to explore for oil in northeastern waters near Tanzania.Malawi has closely watched Uganda’s developments around Lake Albert, where oil firms are pouring billions of dollars to exploit reserves estimated at 2,5 billion barrels.Lake Malawi lies in the same Great Lakes system stretching along the African Rift, and Malawi is hoping for a similar payout – which could transform the fortunes of the impoverished country whose economy depends on small farmers and foreign aid.Tanzania is already savouring the prospect of energy wealth with the announcement in February that Norwegian oil group Statoil and US company ExxonMobil had together discovered that there is a large natural gas field with reserves estimated at 140 billion cubic metres.Now it also wants a slice of anything discovered near its shores in Lake Malawi.Malawi claims ownership of the entire lake under an 1890 agreement – whose validity is disputed by Tanzania.When African states became independent, they agreed to maintain their colonial borders.Tanzania was a German colony that Britain took over after World War I. Britain then placed all the lake’s waters under Malawi’s administration. Membe said they had agreed oil exploration in the lake, particularly in the disputed areas, should ‘cease to allow space for negotiations to take place’.Technical experts from the two countries wrapped up five days of talks on Friday and presented their recommendations to the ministers but a final decision rests with the countries’ two presidents.’Each side has a serious case. If you think that the other side has no serious case, that is self-deception,’ Membe said at the start of the talks.Membe added: ‘Neighbours must endure, neighbours must always remain neighbours, and we are here because of differences in positions.’He said whatever the outcome of the negotiations, ‘the basis must be scientific for generations to come’. – Nampa-AFP

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