Why India wants New Zealand on its side

India views New Zealand not only as an economic partner, but also as a diplomatic ally that can help maintain the rules-based international order at a time when it is under increasing tension, according to India’s foreign policy experts.

The National Government is touting its free trade agreement with India as a way to strengthen New Zealand’s economy and diversify export markets. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon warmly welcomed his counterpart Narendra Modi to Auckland last weekend, noting that it was the first time in 40 years that an Indian leader had visited New Zealand.

Our economic ties with India have been cemented by a bilateral free trade agreement, and the relationship is now evolving into a broader “strategic partnership,” according to an announcement from both sides.

This relationship is also useful for India, says Tanvi Madan, an expert on Indian foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

“New Zealand is an actor that plays, and always has played, a role in maintaining international order, and especially at a time when India understands that not everyone is invested in maintaining that international order, I think a country like New Zealand is an attractive partner,” she said.

Modi would also be open to strengthening defense ties with New Zealand, she said, noting that India and Australia – both members of the “Quad” group, which also includes the United States and Japan – have also made progress on bilateral security arrangements. It also wants to play a bigger role in the Pacific, Madan says.

“Even though the Pacific islands are very far from India, some – like Fiji – have diaspora links with India, and India is trying to get more involved there,” she said.

Modi, Indian Prime Minister since 2014, is arguably the most important Indian leader since Jawaharlal Nehru, who ruled India until 1964.

He took a more assertive approach to foreign policy. India has long prided itself on being non-aligned, but analysts say Modi is making it “multi-aligned” by forging closer relations with Russia – with the Trump administration imposing 50% tariffs on India as punishment for its purchases of sanctioned Russian oil – and has also eased long-standing tensions with China.

Modi wants India to become a global power rather than just a regional one.

“Today we are probably between a regional power and a global power,” Madan says. “It aspires to become a leading power, as it has officially declared, and I believe it intends to become one of the great powers eventually. »

The relationship with New Zealand is part of this vision.

“I know that today everyone is diversifying, but India has for a long time had this idea of ​​not having permanent allies, but many good friends, for two reasons,” Madan explains. “First, they did not want to be too dependent on a given country, and second, they wanted to maintain a certain independence of action or autonomy. »

This is why India is actively seeking to strengthen its ties on several fronts. Modi stopped in Indonesia and Australia before coming to New Zealand, and India is now actively seeking a free trade deal with the United States.

But at home, Modi is deeply polarizing. His supporters see him as the architect of a more confident and influential India, while his critics say he has weakened institutions and concentrated power, threatening India’s pluralist democratic tradition.

Groups like Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders have accused him of democratic backsliding, particularly regarding restrictions on the press and civil society and the treatment of religious minorities.

Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party is based on a Hindu nationalist political ideology, was criticized while chief minister of Gujarat for not doing enough to stop the 2002 riots that led to the deaths of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.

Modi’s promotion of the Hindu majority is at odds with India’s secular tradition of recognizing equality among all religions and accepting the country’s ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity, says Yamini Aiyar, a respected political commentator who served as president of the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi.

“Hindu nationalism has always been incompatible with the fundamental principles of liberal democracy, simply because the fundamental principles of liberal democracy ingrain within them the notion or concept of protection of minorities,” says Aiyar.

“Democracy is supposed to have checks and balances so that it doesn’t become a brutal majority force, whereas Hindu nationalism – by definition – is about the voice of the majority,” she says.

Modi is sometimes described as having authoritarian or autocratic tendencies, and Aiyar believes this is a fair criticism.

“We have seen a very profound militarization of the coercive powers of the state,” she says, citing anti-sedition and anti-terrorism laws, laws regulating foreign funding of nonprofits and criminalizing dissent, as well as the erosion of the independence of the judiciary.

“So there is a whole series of illustrations of how fundamental democratic processes have been undermined.”

But, Aiyer says, New Zealanders need to understand that India, fundamentally, remains an ambitious economy with enormous potential.

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