Christopher Luxon is unlikely to visit India this side of Christmas, but described a meeting with Narendra Modi as ‘fantastic’, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin.

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A whirlwind visit to Laos

The prime minister has been in Laos for just a day, and by tonight he’ll be winging his way home again. Christopher Luxon has travelled to the landlocked nation to attend the annual East Asia Summit, explained The Post, and intended to use his brief time on the ground to “discuss strategic issues, which continue to be on an increasingly challenging trajectory across the Indo-Pacific”. But more crucially for New Zealand, reported the Herald’s Jamie Ensor, Luxon has had the opportunity to rub shoulders with senior representatives from key nations such as the United States, China and India. “If you think about all the countries that want to get to the door of the White House, or the door of the premier of China, or the door of the prime minister of India, those are hard opportunities to make happen,” David Capie, a professor of international relations at Victoria University, told the Herald.

Overnight, Luxon met on the sidelines of the summit with Australia’s Anthony Albanese and Canada’s Justin Trudeau, reported RNZ’s Craig McCulloch. The trio have issued several joint statements about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and the informal catch up at a Laotian café was expected to focus on this. “We are like-minded in pushing for de-escalation of the violence, protection of civilians and humanitarian aid coming in, and also all of us are committed to a path to a two-state solution,” Trudeau said before the meeting.

Asia a critical focus

Christopher Luxon only made his first trip to Dunedin as prime minister over the weekend, but by my count he’s currently visiting his fifth South East Asian nation. It underscores his government’s dedication to building ties with other regions – particularly South East Asia. In an interview with Newsroom’s Laura Walters before a previous visit to the region, the prime minister said he wanted to see a “reprioritisation and a much bigger deepening and strengthening of the relationships across the whole of South East Asia”.

Walters also reported that Asean leaders were calling for more involvement from us as well, and in a further interview with Newsroom, Luxon added: “You want to make sure New Zealand never, ever, loses influence”.

A big meeting

One crucial meeting that Luxon secured while in Laos was with India’s prime minister Narendra Modi. It’s the first time the pair have met in person, though they have had conversations previously. Luxon’s predecessor, Chris Hipkins, had a brief one on one conversation with Modi during a flying visit to Papua New Guinea last year, as I reported from the ground at the time. An offer to visit India was extended to the former PM and Hipkins promised to head there within 100 days of his next term, but the election result clearly took that off the table (as BusinessDesk’s Dileepa Fonseka pointed out, that would have clashed with India’s election anyway).

Stuff’s Glenn McConnell reported that Luxon has had a similar invitation extended to him while in Laos, though it may not happen before the end of the year. “It was just very difficult for us to practically make it happen between now and Christmas, and then New Zealand has its summer holiday,” Luxon said.

Time ticking on India FTA promise

Speaking to local media, Luxon said he is a “big fan of India” and called the meeting with Modi “fantastic”. “We look forward to continuing to deepen and broaden that relationship as well”.

The meeting with Modi isn’t simply a chance for two leaders to catch up. Luxon and the coalition have set a particularly serious target for bolstering the New Zealand-India relationship. While on the campaign trail, Luxon pledged to ink a free trade deal with India before the end of his first term, describing it as a “priority”. That’s no mean feat given talks first started more than a decade ago under prime minister John Key, before stalling about 2016. As The NBR’s Brent Edwards wrote last year (paywalled), one major stumbling block is India’s opposition to opening its markets to dairy and meat exports from New Zealand.

Since the election, little firm progress has been made on advancing this, though the trade minister, Todd McClay, has visited the nation on three occasions. Speaking to media before his meeting with Modi, the prime minister said he remained confident a trade deal could be struck this term and hoped the face-to-face meeting would help deepen his relationship with the influential world leader.