The much-anticipated meeting between Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and India’s Narendra Modi has taken place, with the Kiwi leader receiving an official invitation to India.
But Modi wasn’t the only prominent world leader Luxon met early on Friday morning (NZT). An orchestrated pull-aside saw Luxon briefly speak with new Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba following Ishiba’s own bilateral with Modi.
The meeting between Luxon and Modi was arguably the most crucial event of the New Zealand Prime Minister’s first full day in Laos, where he is officially for the East Asia Summit.
It was the first facetime the pair have had, though they have previously spoken on the phone and Luxon has met with India’s external affairs minister.
While media were able to capture some of Modi’s opening remarks at the bilateral, members of the Indian delegation escorted reporters out of the room prior to Luxon making any formal opening comments. It’s normal for opening remarks, which tend to highlight areas of shared interest between the two countries and what the leaders want to get out of their conversation, to be recorded by media.
In any case, the Prime Minister will hold a press conference later on Friday, during which he will be quizzed about the contents of the meeting and Modi’s invitation to him to visit next year.
Luxon initially wanted to travel to India this year – a pledge he made on the election campaign – but timing issues, including a large number of international events over the coming months, got in the way.
Upon entering the room where the bilateral was being hosted (and where Modi was sitting patiently waiting), Luxon said, “Nice to meet you, thank you for making time for us today.”
“We really appreciate, it is lovely to meet you in person. Thank you so much,” he said before taking a photo shaking Modi’s hand.
In his opening comments captured by media, Modi expressed his pleasure at finally meeting Luxon in person.
“This is our first in-person meeting, so I am very happy to see you. We spoke to each other in July on the phone, this was after [the Indian] elections. But I am very happy to have this opportunity of seeing you today and discussing some important issues.”
Following the bilateral, Modi posted on X (formerly Twitter) to say the meeting had been “excellent”.
“We value our friendship with New Zealand, bound together by a commitment to democracy, freedom and rule of law. Our talks covered sectors such as economic cooperation, tourism, education and innovation.”
A statement released by the Indian Government mentioned topics of discussion included trade, investment, security, renewable energy, education, agri-tech, sports, tourism, space and people-to-people ties.
“[The Prime Ministers] noted that frequent high-level contacts have imparted a strong momentum to bilateral relations. In this context, they recalled the recent visit of the President of India to New Zealand, which was a huge success.
“The Prime Ministers renewed their commitment to further strengthen cooperation in multilateral fora and reiterated their commitment to take the India-New Zealand relationship to greater heights.
“Prime Minister [Modi] extended an invitation to Prime Minister Luxon to visit India on mutually convenient dates, which he accepted.”
At a media standup earlier on Thursday, Luxon said he would be focused on building a strong rapport with Modi and dampened down any expectations that the meeting may kickstart any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations.
“There’ll be a range of topics to discuss and there’ll be areas of disagreement and real challenge. But the point is, first and foremost, I want the relationship in place, which is what we’ve been working hard at over the last 10 months.
“Once we have a foundation of a relationship, then we can start to progress the more transactional conversations around trade and also around security.”
During last year’s election campaign Luxon promised to secure a deal this term. That has been called a highly ambitious goal given India’s protectionist stance on agriculture and that the last round of formal negotiations were held nearly 10 years ago.
The Prime Minister has had a full diplomatic dance card on Thursday. As well as meeting Modi, he held a three-way meeting with the Canadian and Australian leaders, and also spoke with the leaders of Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.
He was also able to slip in the quick chat with Ishiba outside of Modi’s bilateral room.
Luxon congratulated Ishiba on recently winning the leadership election for Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and therefore becoming Prime Minister.
“We look forward to continuing to building the relationship between New Zealand and Japan. Well done. It must have been quite the busy few weeks for you,” Luxon said.
Ishiba, who had Luxon’s comments translated, thanked the New Zealand Prime Minister.
Earlier, during a sit-down at a burger café with Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Australian leader Anthony Albanese, all three leaders made mention of the trio’s alignment on the conflict in the Middle east.
Trudeau: “We are like-minded and pushing for de-escalation of the violence, protection of civilians and humanitarian aid ... and also all of us committed to a path to a two-state solution which requires a lot of work that we’re continuing to do.”
Albanese: “We together have issued statements reflecting those common values which are there, calling for de-escalation, calling for the return of hostage, expressing our abhorrence at the terrorist acts of October 7, and also talking about the need to move towards a two-state solution and to have a region which represents the opportunity for peace and security and prosperity for the citizens in the Middle East, whether they be Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese.”
Luxon earlier told reporters the New Zealand Government was “deeply concerned” about the risk of “catastrophic impact on innocent citizens” should conflict in the region continue to escalate.
“That is why we are asking for restraint, de-escalation and it’s not going to be solved by more military action,” he said.
“When we’re seeing innocent civilians being impacted in the way that they are, we need parties to get back around the table and actually negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza and to actually make sure we don’t see contagion out to Iran and out to Lebanon.”
Calls for de-escalation in the region have come from across the globe, including France, the United Nations, and the United Kingdom.
Asked by the Herald whether he thought Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu was listening to other global leaders, Luxon responded: “Well, it doesn’t seem like it”.
“We’re trying to make the call to say, ‘Look, you’ve got to exercise restraint, and that the loss of innocent civilian life is unacceptable’.”
Meanwhile, the bilateral with Cambodia went slightly awry for media, who were taken into a room to await the leaders, only to find out the leaders were in another room. When they were eventually led into the right one, the meeting had already begun, and reporters were quickly shuffled out.
Among Luxon’s other activities on Thursday was visiting the Patuxay Victory Monument (dedicated to those killed fighting for Laos’ independence from France) and attending a dinner with other world leaders.
Luxon was seated next to Modi and Albanese, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken worked the room.
The New Zealand Prime Minister also spoke at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Business and Investment Summit. Luxon spent most of that speech discussing his desire for economic growth for New Zealand and how Asean – New Zealand’s fourth-largest trading partner as a bloc – was a “critical part” of the Government’s strategy to double the value of exports within 10 years.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
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