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Home , Anand Satyanand, Bill English, Helen Clark, Indira Gandhi, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Norman Kirk

- Relations

General:

India and New Zealand traditionally share close and friendly relations which are reinforced by their commonwealth background. Both countries today are fellow travelers in their commitment to disarmament, global peace, North-South Dialogue, human rights, ecological preservation and combating international terrorism. The first Indian settlers migrated to New Zealand in 1810. As per the latest Census figures released in December 2013, a sizeable Indian origin population of over 1, 50,000 has made New Zealand its permanent home. has now emerged as the fourth most spoken language in New Zealand. Tourism and sporting links, particularly in cricket, hockey and mountaineering, have also played a significant role in fostering goodwill between the two countries.

Political relations and institutional framework:

(a) Recent High level visits:

(i) Visit of Hon’ble Human Resource Development Minister: Dr. M. M. Pallam Raju, Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development, led the Indian delegation to the 2nd meeting of the India-New Zealand Education Council held at on 9 July 2013.

(ii) Visit of Hon’ble Speaker, : Smt. Meira Kumar, Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha, led a Parliamentary delegation to New Zealand from 13-17 April 2012, as a Guest of the . During their visit, the delegation held meetings with the Acting Prime Minister , NZ Speaker Dr. , Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians of NZ and Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown and attended a reception hosted by the India-New Zealand Business Council.

(iii) Visit of Governor General of New Zealand to India in September, 2008, in October 2010 and in January 2011: Honourable , the Governor General accompanied by his wife Susan Satyanand paid a State Visit to India from September 8-14, 2008. This was also the first ever visit of a New Zealand Governor General to India. During the visit he met the President and the Prime Minister, the Vice President, the External Affairs Minister, the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and the Leader of Opposition, Shri L.K. Advani. The Governor General announced the establishment by the Government of New Zealand, of the ‘’Sir Fellowships’’ to promote visits from India and of distinguished persons in the areas of business, politics, law, culture and other fields to New Zealand. The Governor General also visited and Hyderabad. Prime Minister Dr. and the Governor General underlined the priority the two governments attached to building a substantial bilateral relationship. The Governor General accompanied by Lady Susan Satyanand also visited New on October 2-9, 2010 to represent the at the XIX Commonwealth Games.

The Governor General accompanied by Lady Susan Satyanand again visited on January 5-10, 2011. The Governor General was the Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Convention held on January 7-9, 2011 and was also honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award.

(iv) State visit of Prime Minister to India: Prime Minister, H.E. John Key, accompanied by Mrs. Bronagh Key, paid a state visit to India from June 26-30, 2011. He was accompanied by the Trade Minister Hon. and Member of Parliament, Mr. , senior officials and a business and media delegation. He called on the President and Vice-President, held talks with the Prime Minister and met with the External Affairs Minister, Chairperson, UPA and the Leader of the Opposition. Prime Minister John Key also addressed a business luncheon organized jointly by CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM. Two agreements were signed during the visit- (i) Agreement on Audio-visual Cooperation; and (ii) Protocol for Cooperation on Science and innovation.

(v) Visit of NZ Education Minister: New Zealand Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, Mr. , visited India for the inaugural meeting of the India New Zealand Education Council (INZEC). The inaugural meeting, held in New Delhi on 19th October 2012 was co-chaired by Mr. Steven Joyce and Hon’ble HRD Minister, Shri . Five MoUs covering areas such as vocational training, joint research training, student exchanges and ICT as also an MoU to set up a New Zealand India Research Institute at the Victoria University of Wellington and the India-New Zealand Aviation Arrangement agreement were signed during the visit.

(vi) Visit of NZ Conservation Minister: Conservation Minister Ms. Kate Wilkinson visited India from 15-23 October 2012 for the 11th Convention on Biological Diversity held in Hyderabad, which was followed by her stopover in New Delhi for the bilateral part of the visit.

(vii) Visit of Primary Industries Minister: Mr. David Carter, Minister for Primary Industries visited India from 24 November to 2nd December 2012.

(viii) Visit of NZ Foreign Minister: NZ Foreign Minister Hon. Murray McCully visited India on 4th June 2013. During the visit, the NZ Minister held bilateral meetings with Hon’ble EAM, CITM, Sports Minister and NSA. Besides progress on FTA, a high priority for NZ; other bilateral/regional issues were also discussed.

Minister McCully also visited India in November 2013 for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meet held in New Delhi.

(b) Record of Bilateral visits

(i) VVIP visits from India:

Sr. No. Date Dignitary 1. 1968 Smt. Indira 2. 1986 Shri

(ii) VVIP visits from New Zealand:

Sr. No. Date Dignitary 1. 1960s PM 2. PM 3. P M 4. Oct’2004 PM 5. Sept 2008 Governor General Anand Satyanand 6. Oct 2010 Governor General Anand Satyanand 7. Jan 2011 Governor General Anand Satyanand 8. Jun’ 2011 Prime Minister John Key

(iii) Other High Level Visits from India

Sr. Date Dignitary No.

1 Oct’06 Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Mr. Vayalar Ravi.

2 Nov’06 Minister of Finance, Mr. P. Chidambaram.

3 Dec’06 Chief Minister of Uttaranchal, Mr. Narayan Datt Tiwari.

4 Mar’07 Minister of Panchayati Raj, Sports and Youth Affairs, Mr. .

5 Apr’07 Special Envoy of PM, Mr. .

6 Jul’07 Minister of Textiles, Mr. Shankarsinh Vaghela.

7 Apr’08 Minister of Youth, Sports and Local Government, Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar.

8 May’08 Minister of Commerce, Mr. Kamal Nath.

9 Aug’08 MOS(EA), Mr. E. Ahamed.

10 Mar’09 Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Dr. M.S. Gill.

11 Feb’10 Member of Parliament, Mr. .

12 Mar’10 Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Mr. M.K. Alagiri. 13 Apr’10 Minister for Human Resource Development, Mr. Kapil Sibal.

14 June’10 Minister for Power, Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde (private visit)

15 June’10 Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Mr. Vayalar Ravi.

16 Sept’10 Governor of Orissa, Mr. Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare.

17 May’11 Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr. .

18 Sept’11 Minister of State for External Affairs, Ms. Preneet Kaur

19 Apr’12 Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha, Mrs. Meira Kumar.

20 Sept’12 Study tour by Mr. Chandreshwar Prasad Singh, Hon’ble Speaker, Jharkhand Legislative Assembly

21 July’13 Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju, Hon’ble HRD Minister.

(iv) Other High Level Visits from New Zealand

Sr. No. Date Dignitary

1. Apr’07 Minister of Defence, Disarmament and Trade, Mr. .

2. Sep/Oct’07 Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Michael Cullen

3. Mar’08 Agriculture and Forestry Minister, Hon.

4. Feb’09 Minister of Trade & Conservation and Associate Minister for Climate Change Issues & , Mr. Tim Groser.

5. Feb’09 Former Minister for Internal Affairs, Dr. Richard Worth.

6. Sept’09 Minister of Trade & Conservation and Associate Minister for Climate Change Issues & Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tim Groser.

7. Mar’11 Minister of Immigration, Mr. Jonathan Coleman. 8. Apr’11 Minister for Defence, Science and Innovation and Associate Minister for Economic Development and Tertiary Education, Mr. .

Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, Mr. 9. Oct’12 Steven Joyce.

Minister for Conservation Ms. Kate Wilkinson

10. Oct’12 Minister for Primary Industries, Mr. David Carter.

11. Nov’12 Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Murray McCully.

12. June’13 Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr. Murray McCully.

13. Nov’13

(c) Agreements between the two countries:

 Trade Agreement - October 1986  Agreement on avoidance of Double Taxation - October, 1986  Civil Aviation Agreement between India and New Zealand August 1997  MOU on Scientific and Technical Cooperation between ICAR and Horti Research of New Zealand - March 1998  MoU of Technical Cooperation between Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, GOI and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Regulatory Authority of New Zealand on Cooperation on Plant Quarantine Issues - April 1999  Arrangement between India and New Zealand for cooperation in the area of Information Technology, December 2001.

 MoU between Indian Institute of Carpet Technology (IICT) and the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (WRONZ), May 2003  MOU on Cooperation between the Indian Council of World Affairs and the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, November 2008  Education Cooperation Arrangement, April 2010  MOU between Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, for establishment of Council’s short-term Chair in India’s International Relations and/or Indian Politics at the University; September 2010.  Agreement on Audio-visual Cooperation.  Protocol for Cooperation on Science and innovation  Official Assurance Programme (OAP) for export of Mangoes to NZ between the Ministry of Agriculture of India and the Ministry for Primary Industries of New Zealand signed in New Delhi on 17th July 2012.  India-New Zealand Aviation Arrangement - October 2012.

 MoU between Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of India and Sports New Zealand of the Government of New Zealand on Cooperation in the field of Sports.

 Education Partnership Agreement between University of Delhi and Massy University of New Zealand.

 Memorandum on Collaboration between National Open University and the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand.

 MoU between Victoria University, Wellington and the University of India.

 MoU between Waiariki Institute of Technology of NZ and Punjab Technical University, India.

 Education Partnership Agreement/MoU between University of Delhi and Lincoln University/Asia Pacific Football Academy.

 MoU between IIM Lucknow and Lincoln University of New Zealand.

 MoU between RBI and Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

(d) Joint Commission: Ministry of Commerce and Industry is the nodal Ministry. Joint Business Council meeting was held in New Zealand in May 2011.

(e) Foreign Office Consultations: India-New Zealand Foreign Office Consultations were held in Wellington on 24th September 2012.

Bilateral Trade:

The bilateral trade has been growing steadily. Figures regarding bilateral trade in NZ $ (millions) in the last five years are as under:

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Year to Nov Exports to India 630 900 938 789 704

Imports from India 355 368 387 424 423

Mahindra-Satyam, HCL Technologies, WIPRO, Infosys and Tech Mahindra, New India Assurance Co. Ltd., Bank of Baroda and Bank of India have presence in New Zealand.

Free Trade Agreement: The negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and New Zealand commenced in April 2010. Until now, nine rounds of negotiations have taken place, the most recent being in New Zealand on 29-30 July 2013.

Indian Community:

There are over 150,000 people of Indian origin in New Zealand. They mainly hail from (over 80%) and Punjab and are concentrated in , Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. Most of them are engaged in the business of running grocery stores and dairy farming. There are also several professionals including doctors, professors, engineers, chartered accountants and computer experts. Most people of Indian origin have acquired New Zealand citizenship. There are Indian Associations in major towns, which provide assistance to their members and also organise various Indian cultural events. As per the latest available information, there are about 12000 Indian students in NZ.

Cultural:

Diwali is celebrated as a representative festival of the large Indian community in New Zealand. Asia-NZ Foundation, a New Zealand Government Department, hosts the troupe and coordinates their programme. ICCR supports the Asia New Zealand Foundation initiative through deputation of a cultural troupe to give performances during the Diwali Celebrations. For Diwali 2013, ICCR sponsored the visit of a ten-member Chhau Dance Troupe.

Cricketing bonds between the two countries are also strong. John Wright, former Captain of the NZ Cricket Team, was Coach of the Indian National Cricket Team from 2000-2005. Some well-known New Zealand Cricketers regularly feature in the annual Indian Premier League T20 matches. The Indian Cricket Team will be visiting New Zealand from January-February 2014 for a series of one day and test matches. New Zealand is gradually emerging as a sought-after destination in recent years for location shooting by Bollywood film producers. Some of the mainstream Hindi films recently shot in New Zealand were Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Om Jai Jagadish and Players.

Concurrent accreditation:

The High Commission of India in Wellington is concurrently accredited to the following two countries (i) Independent State of ; and, (ii) Niue [to be formally notified shortly].

*****

January 2014