Echoing comments made by Prime Minister John Key last week, Mr English said New Zealand "stands shoulder to shoulder with France in the global fight against terror".
Mr Key would express New Zealand's condolences to the French President Francois Hollande in person later this month when he travelled to Paris for climate change talks.
Labour leader Andrew Little said Paris was a city which represented "the best about our civilisation" and had been attacked by people who "wanted to return us to the worst kind of barbarism".
Mr Little said it was important to remember why terror occurred - to cause fear in civilised countries.
"They win when we succumb to the fear that they foster," he said. "They win when we respond only with anger and hatred.
"They win when we turn on ourselves and on our peaceful communities. They win when our only response is revenge retribution."
Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Kennedy Graham also expressed his sadness about the 132 deaths in Paris, while also recognising other victims in Lebanon, Turkey, Russia, USA, Palestine, Israel and Egypt.
"To paraphrase a valiant leader from a century ago, your sons and daughters so cruelly slain in the city of Paris this Friday evening are our sons and daughters today," Dr Graham said.
"For we are united in sorrow and respect. Our hearts go out to the families of the fallen."
In a short speech, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said he wanted the French people to know that New Zealand was with them in their hour of grief and anguish. "Vive le France," he concluded.
The commemorations finished with a waiata led by Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox.
