Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Auckland for the first visit by an Indian leader to New Zealand in four decades, a trip built around the two countries’ new free trade deal and their fast growing links in trade, defence and community life.
Modi landed on Friday on the final leg of a three nation tour that took in Australia before New Zealand. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met him at the airport and greeted him with a hug, opening a two day programme that centres on Auckland and a series of bilateral talks between the two leaders.
It is the first time an Indian prime minister has visited New Zealand in about 40 years, and the government has framed the trip as a milestone in a relationship that has warmed quickly over the past year. Officials say the talks will cover trade, investment, defence, sport, culture, education and people to people ties, the everyday connections that run through a large and growing Indian community here.
Trade sits at the centre of the visit. Earlier this year the two governments reached agreement on a free trade deal after negotiations that had stalled for years and were then revived. Luxon has been promoting the deal hard in the days before Modi’s arrival.
“New Zealand businesses are set to boom with our India Trade Deal,” Luxon said. “57% of everything we export to India will be tariff free from day one.”
India is the world’s most populous country and one of its fastest growing large economies, which makes it a prize market for New Zealand exporters. Dairy, meat, wood, kiwifruit, wool and a growing education and services trade all stand to gain from easier access, and exporters have spent years pushing for a deal that would lower the tariffs that have long kept many New Zealand goods out of Indian shops. For a government heading into an election, an agreement with a market that size is a card the prime minister is keen to play, and the Modi visit gives him a high profile stage to do it.
Police confirmed that Aucklanders would face “some disruptions” during the visit and said officers had run rehearsals to test the “intense security” around Modi’s movements, according to RNZ. Visits by heads of government routinely bring road closures and a heavy police presence, and the scale of Modi’s security detail reflects both his status and the size of the crowds his trips tend to draw.
Modi is a polarising figure on the world stage. His government is admired by many for India’s economic rise and its growing weight in global affairs, and it is criticised by others over its record on minority rights and press freedom. Small protests have followed parts of his tour, and some community groups in New Zealand have signalled they will make their concerns heard during the Auckland leg. The government has stuck to the language of partnership and opportunity, keeping the focus on trade and the long term relationship.
For the large Indian community in Auckland, the visit carries a different weight again. New Zealanders of Indian descent are one of the largest and fastest growing groups in the city, and a visit by the prime minister of their country of origin is a significant moment, whatever people make of his politics. Community events and gatherings have been organised around the trip, and many families will follow the two days closely.
The timing is not lost on anyone at Parliament. New Zealand is in an election year, and recent polling has the governing coalition and the opposition running close. A trade deal with a market the size of India is exactly the kind of achievement a government wants voters thinking about as the campaign sharpens. Labour has questioned parts of the coalition’s wider economic record, but has generally supported closer trade ties with India, so the visit is unlikely to become a straight party fight.
If you have not yet worked out where the parties stand ahead of the election, Newswire’s voting tool lets you compare their positions on trade, the economy and much more.
The practical question now is how quickly the deal turns into real gains for exporters. Trade agreements can take time to come into force and to filter through to farmers, manufacturers and service firms on the ground, and the detail of which goods qualify for tariff free access matters as much as the headline figure. Business groups have welcomed the agreement in principle while waiting to see the fine print and the timetable for it taking effect.
For now the focus is on the visit itself. Two days of talks, ceremony and security in Auckland, a warm public friendship between two prime ministers, and a trade deal that both governments want to hold up as proof the relationship is finally moving. Whether it delivers the boom Luxon is promising will be judged over years, not over a weekend.
What do you make of the Modi visit and the India trade deal? Have your say in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
Leave a Reply