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Kia ora and good morning, everyone.
This is a great time to hold a Summit focused on the India-New Zealand relationship. It comes seven weeks after I returned from India following one of New Zealand’s largest ever Prime Ministerial missions.
I was joined by 40 business representatives, 15 community leaders, three Cabinet Ministers, four MPs, a Kapa Haka group, and a range of senior government officials all laser-focused on our relationship with India.
We visited New Delhi and Mumbai for a packed programme that covered every facet of our broad-based relationship with India – political connections, trade and economics, defence and security, people, culture and, of course, cricket.
As was the case on my previous visits to India when I was in the private sector with Unilever, I was struck by the remarkable energy, dynamism, and innovation that I encountered.
I concluded the mission more convinced than ever that India is a country of enormous consequence for New Zealand and for the world.
So, I want to spend some time reflecting on the mission and talking about some of the outcomes in three key areas. First, economic opportunities; second, defence and security; and third, in terms of people and culture.
I then want to set out what I see as the next steps in the relationship.
Economic opportunities
First, I want to talk about the economic opportunities we saw in India, and what we are doing to capitalise on them.
I’m sure everyone here is familiar with India’s amazing growth story. The fastest GDP growth rate in the G20, with India on track to become the world’s third-largest economy in the next few years, and the Indian middle class now numbers 445 million.
When I met with Prime Minister Modi, I had a chance to discuss with him India’s extraordinary transformation. Over the past decade, 250 million Indians have been lifted out of poverty; the number of airports in India has more than doubled to 157, with many more planned in the coming years; and India’s government estimates that it has built 95,000 kilometres of highway. To put this last one in perspective, that would be enough highway to drive between New Zealand and India eight times.
Globally, India is a consequential and influential voice, successfully hosting the G20 in 2023, and a space power, becoming the first country to land a spacecraft on the moon’s South Pole two years ago.
While in India, I had discussions with business leaders who are running companies doing incredible things. Innovators like Nadir Godrej, responsible for one of India’s biggest, oldest and best-known industrial groups, and Natarajan Chandrasekaran who chairs Tata, a conglomerate with a presence in dozens of countries around the world. It was inspiring to hear of their plans and, importantly, to pitch to them on the value of closer connections with New Zealand.
For New Zealand, the economic opportunities in India are immense. Despite India’s growth and scale, it still only accounts for 1.5 per cent of our exports. We are working hard to change that. That was why I took so many business leaders with me to India. That’s why we worked so hard while in New Delhi and Mumbai to ensure New Zealand’s primary products, our technology, our education exports and our tourism offering were front and centre.
It is Kiwi and Indian businesses, including all of those in this room today, that are the engines of growth, creating new opportunities, lifting trade, and helping transform the relationship between our countries. And for all your ongoing effort and leadership in this regard, I thank you.
Part of my Government’s job is to improve the environment in which our great Kiwi businesses operate in their dealings with India. On that front, I am pleased to report that, during the mission to India, the Government made real progress.
First and foremost, I was delighted that Todd McClay and his Indian counterpart, Piyush Goyal, announced the launch of negotiations towards a Free Trade Agreement. The launch of negotiations is a breakthrough in the economic relationship between India and New Zealand.
Prime Minister Modi and I have instructed our negotiators to work quickly to reach a comprehensive and mutually beneficial agreement, one that promises to play a major role in doubling New Zealand’s exports by value over the next ten years.
My Government is focused on growing our economy and lifting incomes, and the launch of negotiations presents an opportunity to do exactly that.
On top of that, 33 MoUs and other commercial outcomes were progressed on the mission, reflecting the growing partnerships between New Zealand and Indian businesses.
Among those was an MoU between Air New Zealand and Air India to establish a new codeshare partnership on 16 routes between India, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. The MoU will also see these two great airlines explore the introduction of a direct service between India and New Zealand by the end of 2028.
This is a fantastic opportunity that promises to make it easier to fly between our countries and further boost our tourism and education sectors.
Defence and security
But there is so much more to our relationship with India than our economic ties. Which brings me to the second major theme of my visit, defence and security.
New Zealand is invested in supporting stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
In an increasingly multipolar world, India is a major geopolitical power and a significant global and regional security actor.
Prime Minister Modi and I agreed that our defence forces should build greater strategic trust with one another, including undertaking more exchanges and training together.
I was pleased to witness the signing of a new Defence Cooperation Arrangement with India. This arrangement enhances defence dialogue and connections and adds an important new dimension to our strategic engagement.
One of the reasons why we want to build greater trust is so that we can have candid conversations at challenging times. On 22 April, India suffered a devastating terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir. New Zealand condemns terrorism, and we sent our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of the attack.
Since then, we have seen an escalation in tension and military activity. We encourage both India and Pakistan to show restraint at this difficult moment and try to de-escalate the situation.
The situation in Jammu and Kashmir reminds us that we face an increasingly difficult and uncertain strategic outlook, including in the Indo‑Pacific region that India and New Zealand share.
While I was in India, I had the great opportunity to share New Zealand’s perspective on the region as the Chief Guest at the Raisina Dialogue, which, as this audience will know, is India’s – and one of the world’s – premier defence and security events.
My message at Raisina was simple: There can be no prosperity without security.
That is why it’s vitally important that New Zealand works closely with India and other partners in support of a region where countries are free to choose their own path free from interference, and where all countries respect foundational rules.
People-to-people links
The third major theme of my mission centred on the links between our people.
New Zealand’s Indian community was a key feature of many of my discussions in India, including with Prime Minister Modi.
Prime Minister Modi praised New Zealand’s Indian diaspora, referring to it as a “living bridge” between our countries. Prime Minister Modi and I formally recognised the contribution of the diaspora in the joint statement released during my visit.
As this audience will be well aware, the 300,000-strong Indian community is the third largest ethnic group in New Zealand. India is our largest source of skilled migrants and our second-largest source of international students.
A point I made to Prime Minister Modi was that Kiwi-Indians are on average younger, better educated, and have greater earnings than the general New Zealand population.
In short, Indian-Kiwis are making a massive contribution to New Zealand. This is why I chose to take with me to India a senior delegation of community leaders.
I made sure that my programme in India reflected and respected the deep cultural links between our countries. I paid my respects at a place sacred to many Kiwi-Hindus – the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple. And I visited Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, a place of profound faith and history to Kiwi-Sikhs.
Of course, another indispensable element of our partnership with India is cricket. It was very special to visit Wankhede Stadium with Mumbai-born Ajaz Patel, who took the third-best bowling figures in Test history on that ground.
But our sporting links go beyond cricket. Prime Minister Modi and I also discussed his plans to diversify and enhance India’s prowess across multiple sports. India is particularly interested in Olympic sports as it looks to bolster Ahmedabad’s bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games. Given our high-performance sports ecosystem and our outstanding record at the Olympics, this is an area where New Zealand is well positioned to work with India.
I was particularly pleased to witness the signing of a Sports Memorandum of Cooperation between New Zealand and India. This arrangement allows us to develop new ways to collaborate across high-performance sports, and exchange programmes, skills, technology and innovation, research, and people.
It should boost sports performance in each country and facilitate exchanges in areas such as community sports and health.
Cooperation in sports is particularly significant at a time when, next year, New Zealand and India will celebrate 100 years of sporting ties. We look forward to celebrating this milestone, including with a visit by the Indian men’s cricket team in late 2026.
Next steps for government, business and community
So, across people, culture, sport, defence and security, trade and economics – my mission to India left the relationship in a stronger position. But there is still a lot of work to do.
I now want to take a few minutes to reflect on the next steps for this important relationship, and the respective roles of government, business and community.
I want to be clear that the mission to India was not the end goal. Rather, it was a springboard to help take our relationship to new heights. We now have an extensive work programme across every facet of the relationship. I will touch on just a couple of examples.
First, we have moved quickly to begin negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement, with the first round of talks already having taken place.
Second, our Government will be continuing a steady tempo of political-level engagements with our Indian counterparts. There is no substitute for face-to-face relationships with the key decision-makers, which is why I’m so pleased Minister Margherita has joined us today. During my meeting with Prime Minister Modi, I offered to reciprocate his warm and generous hospitality by inviting him to visit New Zealand when his schedule allows.
Third, to give effect to the various areas of new co-operation, our Government has confirmed that we will need more people on the ground in India. New Zealand will increase our diplomatic footprint in India by more than 60 per cent, underscoring our commitment to the relationship and our ambition to see it grow further.
The Government will be working hard to maintain the momentum, and continue building a broad, deep, and enduring strategic relationship with India.
But our relationship with India is far too important to be left to Government alone. There is a crucial role for two other actors in our society, business and community.
Our relationship with India is so significant that I want to see an ‘all of New Zealand’ effort with government, business and community all moving in the same direction.
The opportunities presented by India are immense. Many of you are already active in the market and have been for some years. But I want to see more New Zealand exporters building relationships in the market and putting together your own strategies for tapping into India’s enormous potential.
The wider Kiwi-Indian community also has a very important role as – in Prime Minister Modi’s words – the “living bridge” between New Zealand and India.
We will stay in touch with the senior delegation of community leaders that accompanied me to India. I encourage the Indian community in New Zealand to continue to share with the Government your insights into our relationship with India and ideas for how we can continue moving forward.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about the vital partnership between New Zealand and India.
The INZBC have put together an excellent programme for today, featuring a range of speakers who are all committed to bringing New Zealand and India much closer together.
The bottom line is we are two countries that can and should be doing much more together, and we will.
Thank you.
