The visit of New Zealand Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon in India in March 2025, identified his first visit to the country as the head of the government. One of the largest delegations ever to travel with the Prime Minister of New Zealand (including ministers, senior business leaders, leading Kiwi, and a group of MPs), one of the largest delegations ever, is an important step in advancing the six-day travel bilateral relations from 16 to 21 March, especially in maritime security and regional stability within the Indo-Practices.
Inaugurating the 10th edition of the Raisina Dialogue, Luxon created a powerful pitch for a safe, stable and inclusive Indo-Pacific, stressing New Zealand’s role in maintaining a rule-based order. He highlighted the intensity of Indo-New Zealand, calling for business, climate action and strong cooperation in maritime security to navigate the developed challenges of the region. The Raisina Dialogue is India’s major geopolitical and geopolitical conference, with a strong attention to Indo-Pacific, security and multilateral cooperation, brings global leaders, policy makers and experts together to suppress international challenges.
Long delayed FTA
Strengthening marine cooperation and the revival of discussion on a free trade agreement (FTA) are two important results of the journey. Given its economic dependence on China, New Zealand has been alert to align with the regional security mechanisms that can oppose Beijing. However, its growing engagement as a ‘important power’ with India, as underlined by PM Luxon, suggests a desire to balance its economic and safety interests in a changing regional order.
Inaugurated in 2009 and faced frequent delays, the FTA is expected to increase trade in areas such as agriculture, important minerals, pharmaceuticals and tourism, with estimates that business has been suggested to ten times in the next decade. This economic cooperation aligns with India’s widespread strategy to integrate global supply chains and improve market access to the Indo-Pacific sector.
As the two nations recognize the centrality of an independent, open and rule-based maritime order, promoting marine engagement leads to increasing participation in India’s broad Indo-Pacific outreach as well as New Zealand’s security architecture. As the Indo-Pacific increases rapidly leads to a multi-polar order, where regional middle powers shape security dynamics, New Zealand’s engagement with India strengthens a safety architecture that does not only depend on the American-China competition. For India, Indo-Pacific extends from the east coast of Africa to the western Pacific. New Zealand, as a Pacific Nation, has rapidly recognized the Indian Ocean Safety Record with developments in the Pacific region, which strengthens its commitment to regional stability. Their developed partnership fit into a broad regional structure that prefer marine safety cooperation.
India’s Act has been deployed as a pure safety provider by all regions (Sagar) Vision for pre -policy and safety and development, while also accepted as a reliable and capable partner in the Indian Ocean region. The two countries have agreed to find out the way to increase the Navy’s interaction, possibly through New Zealand’s participation in India’s matching naval exercises, bringing regional navies together to increase interaction and discuss the path for future cooperation in the maintenance and technology of the ship.
Pacific reset policy
The decision to join Wellington’s Indo-Pacific Onsions Initiative (IPOI) and The Coalition for Disaster Resident Infrastructure (CDRI) aligns with its Pacific Reset Policy, focusing on strengthening the engagement with the Pacific Island countries. Ipoi can collaborate on capacity related to marine ecology, resource management and safety in India-Pacific through IPOI, India and New Zealand. For example, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and ocean acidication affected the small Indo-Pacific island nations. New Zealand, as a Pacific Nation with these islands and strong ties to India, can work together at its iPOI, climate adaptation strategies, marine disaster reaction and flexibility of coastal infrastructure. Similarly, Indo-Pacific faces increase challenges by IUU fishing, especially working in water contesting elections by foreign fleet. New Zealand, with its expertise in permanent fisheries management, can contribute to India to curb the issue through increased patrol coordination and capacity-making initiative to small island countries.
While the New Zealand is not part of the quadrilateral security dialogue (quad), its growing security partnership with India allows more alignment with Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), Cyber Security and Cyber Security Projects with Quad-LED initiatives. The collective preventive in Indo-Pacific has been strengthened in Indo-Pacific in collaboration with New Zealand with quad members on maritime security. Both New Delhi and Wellington actively connect with ASEAN and Pix, which face growing geo -political pressure due to the major power competition. Increasing security partnership through the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) will allow India and New Zealand to play an active role in the regional security rule.
The visit of Prime Minister Luxon has injected fresh speed in India-New Zealand relations, which paves the way for deep cooperation in trade, security and regional stability. As the two nations navigate the Indo-Pacific landscape that developed, their strong partnership promises to be a significant force in shaping the more flexible and inclusive future for the field.
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Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
