Venu Menon
Wellington, August 6,2024
Minister for Trade Todd McClay has raised the tempo of trade relations between New Zealand and India.
The minister made a quick dash to New Delhi following a meeting with India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) trade ministers’ talks in Italy last month. McClay has confirmed he will visit India again in August.
It will be the fourth meeting between the two trade ministers, and follows on the heels of a recent high-level visit by Indian trade officials to New Zealand.
In an August 4 opinion piece, McClay stresses the importance of Asian markets, particularly India. He cites the results of the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s annual survey, released in June 2024, that shows New Zealanders see Asia as being crucial to New Zealand’s future, second only to Australia in terms of its importance to Kiwis.
McClay says the coalition government has come to the conclusion that India, with its 1.4 billion population, is an important export destination for goods and services from New Zealand, and stresses that “through trade, we not only work to advance our own prosperity, but also our security….”
The linkage of trade with security is significant.
McClay notes India is on track to be the fourth largest economy in the world by 2025. But it has also sharpened its focus on the Indo-Pacific region, which gives India an added importance.
But the strong trade relationship between the two countries is also influenced by geopolitics, not least because of India’s growing maritime presence and importance in the Indo-Pacific.
India has set its sights on a heightened role in promoting its security interests in the Indo-Pacific region.
It is fair to say those interests go beyond the soft power diplomacy of mango exports to New Zealand. Arguably, New Delhi seeks to engage with Wellington on matters that go beyond the removal of barriers to entry for New Zealand products.
They include questions that foreign policy hawks on either side would identify as the weaponisation of trade as a means for India to achieve its security goals in the Indo-Pacific region.
The New Zealand government may need to read between the lines of the messaging coming out of New Delhi stressing that building a relationship precedes negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India.
That goes to the core of the longstanding deadlock around India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
At some point, as the two countries navigate the waters of the Indo-Pacific, trade and security questions overlap. If the impetus to reach an FTA lies with New Delhi, taking the lead on India’s admission to the NSG rests with Wellington.
Trade relations between India and New Zealand foreseeably hinge on reciprocity going beyond trade.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
