New Delhi: India and New Zealand on Saturday (July 11) elevated their relationship to a Strategic Partnership with a strong maritime and security focus, signing a series of defence agreements and establishing new security dialogues even as a recently concluded free trade agreement (FTA) remains some distance from taking effect.Modi’s visit to Auckland, the first by an Indian prime minister since Rajiv Gandhi travelled to New Zealand in 1986, came less than three months after the two countries signed an FTA that both governments have cast as the foundation for a broader strategic partnership. The Indian PM arrived in New Zealand on Friday (June 10) night, at the end of a three-nation tour that included Indonesia and Australia.Announcing the upgrade, New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon said the Strategic Partnership reflected the two countries’ “shared ambition to do more together” and that the leaders had “backed that ambition with action.” He said the accompanying Roadmap to 2030 would guide cooperation across trade, investment, technology, maritime security, education, tourism, agriculture and people-to-people ties.Maritime Cooperation Arrangement between the Indian Navy and the New Zealand Defence ForceModi, who thanked Luxon for personally driving the trade negotiations, said it was rare for an FTA to be concluded “in such a short time” and described the Strategic Partnership as a milestone that would give bilateral ties “greater energy and greater confidence.” Referring to India and New Zealand as maritime democracies, he said closer cooperation between the two countries could contribute to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.While trade provided the backdrop, the visit’s substantive outcomes centred on maritime security and the Indo-Pacific.The two sides announced a Maritime Cooperation Arrangement between the Indian Navy and the New Zealand Defence Force, a reciprocal logistics support arrangement and an implementation arrangement on hydrography and nautical cartography. They also agreed to establish an annual Maritime Security Dialogue and welcomed New Zealand’s decision to join the maritime security pillar of India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative.Speaking at a media briefing after the talks, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Secretary (East) Rudrendra Tandon said the strategic upgrade reflected India’s growing engagement with the Pacific.“As an Indian Ocean country, the Pacific is a very important maritime zone for us,” he said. “This whole visit is about strengthening the rules-based Indo-Pacific order.”The joint statement reaffirmed support for a “free, open, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific”, freedom of navigation under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ASEAN centrality and a rules-based regional order.FTA still awaiting parliamentary approvalAlthough the India-New Zealand FTA has been signed, it has not yet entered into force because New Zealand must complete its domestic ratification process. The bill must pass three readings in the House of Representatives, undergo scrutiny by Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee and receive Royal Assent before the government can formally ratify the agreement.Asked about the timeline, Tandon said Wellington had not indicated when the process would be completed.“There is no commitment of a set date, but the process of ratification has begun,” he said, adding that New Zealand had informed India the first of the three parliamentary readings had already been completed.The parliamentary process is being closely watched because the FTA has become one of Luxon’s signature foreign economic initiatives. After identifying India as a priority market early in his tenure, the New Zealand prime minister personally championed negotiations that concluded in December 2025 after just nine months.His government has argued that, once implemented, the agreement will immediately eliminate tariffs on 57 percent of New Zealand’s exports to India, eventually covering 95 percent by value which will open greater opportunities in the Indian market.India retained protections for politically sensitive sectors including dairy, milk products, onions, sugar and edible oils.The agreement, however, has also exposed political divisions in Wellington.When it was concluded last December, coalition partner New Zealand First, led by Foreign Minister Winston Peters, declared it would vote against the FTA, arguing that it delivered insufficient gains for New Zealand’s dairy industry while giving “too much away, especially on immigration”.The criticism centred on the FTA’s mobility provisions, which allow easier movement of skilled Indian professionals under New Zealand’s existing immigration laws. The agreement provides a quota of 5,000 temporary employment visas at any one time, permits stays of up to three years for eligible workers, creates 1,000 working holiday visas, and expands post-study work rights for Indian students, while also covering professionals including IT specialists, engineers, healthcare workers, chefs, yoga instructors and AYUSH practitioners.‘The FTA is not an agreement for immigration’When questions resurfaced during Modi’s visit, Tandon also drew a distinction between mobility and migration. “There is a lot of misunderstanding,” he said. “The FTA is not an agreement for immigration. Immigration and mobility of skilled manpower are two different issues altogether.”He said the mobility provisions were intended to facilitate trade in services rather than permanent migration.“The commitments that were crafted in the FTA pertain to mobility of skilled manpower under the existing laws that New Zealand has,” Tandon said. “It has nothing to do with immigration, which is a completely different phenomenon of people moving and permanently residing”.Despite New Zealand First’s opposition, the government no longer depends solely on its coalition partners because the opposition Labour Party has indicated it will support the implementing legislation, giving the agreement bipartisan backing in Parliament.Addressing business leaders in Auckland, Modi said New Zealand had committed to invest $20 billion in India over the next 15 years, describing it as “not just investment” but “a commitment to partner with India in its development journey.”That characterisation has been disputed in New Zealand since the agreement was announced. Wellington has consistently maintained that the provision commits the government to promote private investment into India rather than requiring either the state or New Zealand companies to invest a fixed amount.The issue surfaced during the visit in the New Zealand Media, with Indian officials questioned whether there would be monitoring or penalties if the $20 billion target was not realised.“There is no specific penalty,” he replied, adding that the provision should be viewed as facilitating a long-term investment partnership rather than imposing a legally binding obligation.The visit produced agreements covering tourism, disaster management, sports, animal husbandry and dairying, cultural cooperation, Antarctic research and higher education, alongside a Kiwifruit Action Plan and two Centres of Excellence for kiwifruit cultivation in Nagaland and Uttarakhand.No plan to begin direct flight services between India and New ZealandAlthough the two governments again encouraged airlines to begin direct services between India and New Zealand, Tandon said there was “no plan for now”, adding that commercial viability would ultimately determine when non-stop flights became feasible.The two governments also agreed to establish a Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and deepen cooperation against transnational organised crime, including narcotics trafficking, financial crime, cyber-enabled crime, terrorism-related offences, people smuggling and trafficking in persons. The joint statement said both sides would also work towards formalising separate arrangements on counter-narcotics and law enforcement cooperation.The statement reiterated “absolute condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism” and specifically condemned the April 2025 terrorist attack in Pahalgam and the November 2025 attack near Delhi’s Red Fort.Asked whether the new counter-terrorism mechanism reflected India’s longstanding concerns over pro-Khalistan activities in New Zealand, Tandon avoided making a direct connection. Instead, he said India and New Zealand were “fairly like-minded” on terrorism and violent extremism and believed there could be “no double standards” in addressing the threat.With the situation in West Asia remaining fragile after the renewed fighting by Iran and United States, the two leaders expressed concern over the “renewed escalation of tensions” and called on “all parties to exercise restraint, de-escalate tensions, and ensure protection of civilians.”They also called for the “full restoration of freedom of navigation and the global flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz, while opposing any constraints on shipping”, reiterating that dialogue and diplomacy remained essential to achieving a lasting settlement.The emphasis on maritime trade reflected concerns that both India and New Zealand have voiced since the conflict in West Asia disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year. New Zealand was among a group of countries that backed a March declaration on keeping global supply chains open amid the crisis, warning that disruptions to oil, gas and other essential goods threatened economies dependent on maritime trade.The joint statement also explicitly acknowledged the impact on the Pacific, noting that “the stability of global supply routes is essential to the region” and that the consequences were “particularly acute for Pacific Island countries, where economies are heavily exposed and higher oil prices are driving increases in costs of electricity generation, shipping, transportation, agriculture, and fisheries, placing significant pressure on social well-being and fiscal sustainability.”Question over Modi’s media engagement resurfacesThe visit also saw a familiar question over Modi’s reluctance to take questions from the media during official overseas visit.At the MEA’s briefing, a New Zealand journalist asked why the prime minister had not addressed a press conference during the visit.Rather than directly answering the question, Tandon defended Modi’s style of political communication. Calling him “a quintessential Indian politician”, Tandon said Modi preferred direct communication with the electorate rather than speaking “through intermediaries”.“Indian politicians favour direct contact with their electorate,” he said. “Mr Modi has perfected the art of direct contact with his electorate.”The exchange echoed similar questions during Modi’s Europe tour earlier this year, when journalists in Norway and the Netherlands publicly questioned why the Indian prime minister did not take unscripted questions alongside his counterparts.