India-New Zealand Strategic Partnership: Roadmap to 2030
The Prime Ministers of India and New Zealand met in Auckland on July 11, 2026, and announced the creation of the India-New Zealand Strategic Partnership, endorsing this Roadmap to 2030 as a shared framework to guide joint action over the next four years. The partnership encompasses six comprehensive pillars without creating any financial commitments or legally binding obligations under domestic or international law.
Political and Diplomatic Engagement includes scheduling regular meetings between Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers, ensuring effective high-level cooperation through regular Foreign Ministers' Dialogue, intensifying interactions between relevant ministries, promoting parliamentary exchanges, and consolidating annual meetings at the Secretary level between India's Ministry of External Affairs and New Zealand's Deputy Secretary (Americas and Asia) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to coordinate implementation.
Defense and Security Cooperation involves pursuing military interaction through exercises, unit visits, personnel exchanges, and high-level defense dialogues while implementing the 2025 Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation. Specific arrangements include implementing the Maritime Cooperation Arrangement, Cooperation in Matters of Hydrography and Nautical Cartography, and a Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement focused on the maritime domain, including bilateral naval exercises. The partnership establishes an annual Maritime Security Dialogue and operationalizes a Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism led by both countries' foreign ministries. Additional cooperation covers cyber security through the India-New Zealand Cyber Dialogue, combating narcotics trafficking, law enforcement cooperation between India's National Investigation Agency and New Zealand Police, and disaster resilience through the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.
Trade and Economic Cooperation sets an aspirational goal of doubling bilateral two-way trade in goods and services to NZ$7 billion (₹35,000 crore) by 2030. The partners will work on next steps for the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement to ensure its early entry into force and operationalize the 2025 Authorised Economic Operators Mutual Recognition Arrangement to simplify customs processes. Primary industries cooperation includes implementing memoranda on horticulture (joint research, knowledge exchange, post-harvest innovation), forestry cooperation (policy dialogue, technical exchanges), and animal husbandry and dairying (technical and policy collaboration). Tourism initiatives involve operationalizing the Memorandum of Arrangement on Tourism to promote two-way visitor flows and encouraging airlines to commence direct flights under the updated Air Services Agreement.
People, Culture, and Sport focuses on engaging diaspora communities, implementing the 2025 Memorandum of Cooperation on Sport and the India-New Zealand Joint Action Plan on Sport between India's Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Sport New Zealand. Additional elements include expert-level exchange on traditional medicine, dialogue on seafarer competency certificates between India's Directorate General of Shipping and Maritime New Zealand, cooperation between India's National Maritime Heritage Complex and New Zealand Maritime Museum, implementing the Arrangement on Cultural Cooperation, and encouraging cooperation between local governments.
Education, Research, Science and Technology, and Disaster Management involves implementing the 2025 Education Cooperation Arrangement between education ministries to facilitate information exchange and growing government and institutional partnerships. Climate cooperation includes engagement with the International Solar Alliance (solar deployment, financing, capacity building) and the Global Biofuels Alliance to support sustainable energy transitions. The partnership encourages bilateral partnerships in research, science, technology and innovation focusing on agriculture, climate, digital transformation, and emerging technologies, and implements a Memorandum of Cooperation between India's National Disaster Management Authority and New Zealand's National Emergency Management Agency covering preparedness, emergency response, and capacity building.
Regional and Multilateral Cooperation includes exchanging views on ASEAN-led and other regional fora to uphold a rules-based Indo-Pacific, exploring cooperation under the Maritime Security pillar of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, and supporting peaceful dispute resolution in accordance with international law, particularly UNCLOS. The partners will strengthen cooperation at the United Nations, support UN reform including India's candidature for permanent Security Council membership, and exchange mutual support for candidatures in multilateral organizations.