Adam Pearse: NZ Herald Political Reporter on the meeting between Christopher Luxon and Narendra Modi

Christopher Luxon and the Indian Prime Minister have agreed on several priorities while in a private meeting yesterday, including on security.  

Luxon is leading a delegation in India this week and announced negotiations for a free trade agreement will kick off next month. 

The Herald's Adam Pearse is with Luxon and Narendra Modi, and told Andrew Dickens it's been a very cordial meeting. 

He says the pair have been getting along well, and are spending quite a bit of time together, taking part in things Modi wouldn't normally take part in. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the big news is India and the Prime Minister
has met with India's PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi
and we'll be talking with Mike Hosking shortly. Of course.
The Prime Minister has been leading a delegation into India
this week and has announced free trade negotiations will begin
next month. And that announcement came as soon as they landed. Basically,

(00:20):
Tom McClay was already there. I mean he lives there
now basically, and this is great for lux and politically
well at least he was thought so. So both leaders
have signed memorandums of understanding and key areas like defense,
education and forestry. And the New Zealand Herald political reporter
Adam Pearce has been traveling to India and has witnessed
the whole thing and joins you, now, hello, Adam good a,

(00:42):
how are you good? That welcome for Christopher Luxen was
quite something.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah, it certainly was. It's true what they say about
India being a bit of an assault on the census
when you first kind of land. But no, certainly it
has been all go since really minute one. We have
had free trade negotiations confirmed as resuming as of next month.
I mean, it was really something that us as reporters

(01:08):
traveling with the Prime minister, we were expecting that to
escually was going to be an announcement. It was going
to come towards the ends, you know, after there's been
some talks, and particularly after or at least after Prime
Mister Christopher Luxon had met with Prime Minister Mody, so
certainly set the tone for the trip. And it's really
continued with the meeting that we've had with Prime Minister

(01:32):
Mody today India time was yesterday in New Zealm time,
which seems to have gone gone pretty well. The pir
seemed to get on. They've spent quite a bit of
time together actually today with a couple of events that
ordinarily you wouldn't actually expect someone like Prime Minister Modi
to take pat in. So we're good signs for reluxtion.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, absolutely, and he In fact, Christopher Luxson spoke at
India's Premier Defense and Security conference today just a few
minutes ago. Really and this is the first time a
foreigner has been invited to address the conference. So how
big a deal was that?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, well, not quite the first time that foreigners addressed
the conference has been a couple of others, but it's
kind of it is primarily European leaders, so certainly significant
that we've got Christopher Luxon and the addressing, addressing a
crowd full of whether there's several heads of government there,
a lot of foreign ministers. He actually gave a pretty

(02:25):
good speak was it was probably about twenty minutes talking
about New Zealand's relationship with India, advertise there how they're
looking to boost defense cooperation, but also how New Zealand
and how Christopher Luxeon sees the world evolving, particularly as
we see what's going on with the US and Donald

(02:46):
Trump's trade war, what we're seeing with China, and how
particularly in the Pacific moving in in area, so especially
with the Cook Islands, Solomon Islands. I think so really
interesting to see his take on there. And it's quite
a form as well. This is India's premiere defense and
security conference, and he held himself pretty well. You know,

(03:07):
sometimes lux And as we've seen, struggles to can struggle
to hit the right notes sometimes, but I mean this
was a big deal for him to take on that role,
big deal to take on that speech, and I think
he's managed himself pretty well.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
So going forward, what do these memorandums of understanding actually mean.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Oh look, I mean you can put as much value
to them as you like, but they simply signal priority areas.
You know, so education as an obvious one, right, and
education has been one of the main attractions for New
Zealand to attract people from India. You know, our quality
education facilities, and you know areas like tourism, sport in particular,

(03:53):
very proud sporting relationship between the two countries. So you know,
it really just does signal the way forward, the priority areas.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
And rocketry obviously in defense and also their space aspirations
and not dairy which you can understand they don't need
us now, but they might need us in the future.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well that's the thing we've often heard from christ Lux
in the days, you know, from when this trip started,
about how India's population is changing. It's becoming more wealthy,
there are more people entering that middle class and therefore,
you know, those those specific niche markets that dairy can
can access will become bigger, offering up opportunities. However, you know,

(04:37):
the majority of the dairy industry here in India, small
scale farming outfits. And as we've known, both past negotiations
have not been successful because they want to protect their market.
So it'll come. Who knows when.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yes, exactly right. Dairy came in twenty years after the
Chinese Free Trade Dealer, and it will come. They've got
three hundred million towns and India low yields two liter
a cow. We're at like eight. They will need.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
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