The second reason that India and New Zealand ties matter is their agreement to cooperate (Opens in new window) on maritime security, hydrography, logistics, and information exchange. New Zealand joining (Opens in new window) the maritime-security pillar of India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative gives two geographically distant countries practical ways to cooperate on issues such as maritime awareness, secure sea lanes, disaster response and wider security of commons. For India, this fits into a broader effort to build maritime partnerships across the region.
Bringing New Zealand into this network also has a clear geographical logic. It lies in the South Pacific beyond India’s traditional Indian Ocean focus, thus making it relevant (Opens in new window) to the wider maritime outlook of India’s MAHASAGAR vision. Closer ties with Wellington can therefore extend India’s engagement further into Oceania, a region where its presence has historically been more limited.
As India looks beyond the Quad (Opens in new window), New Zealand adds a deeper connection to Oceania, now central (Opens in new window) to the politics of the Indo-Pacific. The Pacific Island countries sit astride vast maritime spaces and face challenges (Opens in new window) involving climate change, fisheries, disaster resilience, connectivity, and security. India has already engaged (Opens in new window) the Pacific Islands through the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), development assistance, capacity building, disaster resilience, and climate initiatives. But India’s presence remains considerably less developed there than that of Australia, New Zealand, or the United States. Bringing their strengths together could allow the two countries to support Pacific Island states in areas where their interests already overlap.
The two countries still have considerable work to do to turn political commitments into sustained trade and naval interaction. Their maritime relations will depend on whether they develop into regular habits of cooperation. The FTA agreement also carries domestic sensitivities. Immigration has become part of the domestic debate, with opponents (Opens in new window) arguing that the agreement gives too much away on immigration and labour access.
Questions around market access, agriculture, immigration, and the distribution of its gains mean that closer economic ties with India will need to be politically sustained at home as well as negotiated between governments. The disagreements cannot be brushed aside because the success of the FTA will ultimately be measured not only by the tariff reductions negotiated by governments but also by whether businesses, farmers, workers, and consumers in both countries see tangible benefits.
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