Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Auckland on July 10, the first Indian prime minister to visit New Zealand in forty years. Most coverage will run through the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement signed in April and what it means for dairy exports and market access. That angle is fair. It is also the easier half of the story.
The harder half started building before the trade deal, and it runs through defence. Christopher Luxon travelled to Delhi in March 2025 to lay the groundwork for a visit like this one. What has happened in Wellington since then has changed how much a defence relationship with India is actually worth to New Zealand and how much New Zealand is worth to India.
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