India & New Zealand sign FTA, target NZ$7 billion trade by 2030

MUMBAI: India and New Zealand have signed a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA), marking the biggest leap in bilateral economic ties in decades and setting an ambitious target of doubling two-way trade to NZ$7 billion (around Rs 35,000 crore) by 2030.

The agreement, announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit to Auckland, forms the centrepiece of a newly launched India-New Zealand Strategic Partnership and Roadmap to 2030. The visit, the first by an Indian Prime Minister to New Zealand in 40 years, concluded with the signing of 10 government-to-government agreements and a series of additional institutional partnerships spanning defence, agriculture, education, maritime security and culture.

For both governments, however, the FTA represents the defining outcome. It concludes negotiations launched during New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s visit to India in March 2025 and provides a framework for expanding trade, investment and market access between the two economies.

In their joint statement, the two leaders welcomed the conclusion of “a balanced, comprehensive and mutually beneficial India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement” and committed to ensuring its early entry into force and effective implementation.

The agreement is expected to lower trade barriers, improve customs cooperation, encourage investment and strengthen collaboration across sectors including agriculture, food processing, clean energy, technology, tourism, education and sports.

Both countries also committed to working towards doubling bilateral trade in goods and services to NZ$7 billion by 2030, significantly expanding the current scale of commercial engagement.

The FTA is accompanied by an Agricultural Productivity Partnership that aims to improve productivity across key sectors including horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry and dairying.

As part of the initiative, India and New Zealand launched a Kiwifruit Action Plan and announced two Centres of Excellence for kiwifruit cultivation in Nagaland and Uttarakhand. The partnership will also support joint work on apples and honey, while leveraging New Zealand’s expertise in food safety, post-harvest systems, sustainability and value-chain development.

A separate memorandum on animal husbandry and dairying seeks to deepen technical cooperation, policy exchange and best-practice sharing between the two countries.

Tourism also emerged as a major pillar of the expanded partnership.

Both governments signed a tourism cooperation agreement designed to increase visitor flows, strengthen industry collaboration and encourage airlines to launch direct non-stop flights between India and New Zealand under the updated Air Services Agreement.

Beyond trade, the visit elevated bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership, reflecting a broader expansion of cooperation across defence, maritime security and regional affairs.

Among the key defence outcomes were a Maritime Cooperation Arrangement, a Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement between the Indian Navy and the New Zealand Defence Force, an implementation agreement on hydrography and nautical cartography, and the establishment of an annual Maritime Security Dialogue.

New Zealand also joined the Maritime Security pillar of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, reinforcing cooperation on maritime domain awareness and efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The two countries agreed to establish a Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, deepen cyber security cooperation and strengthen collaboration between law enforcement agencies to tackle organised crime, narcotics trafficking, terrorism financing and cyber-enabled offences.

Climate resilience and disaster preparedness featured prominently in the roadmap as well.

India’s National Disaster Management Authority and New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency signed a cooperation agreement covering earthquake resilience, tsunami preparedness, emergency response and disaster risk reduction. New Zealand also announced its decision to join the Global Biofuels Alliance, while both countries committed to expanding collaboration through the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

Education and research partnerships received a further boost through new agreements between the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research and the University of Canterbury on Antarctic research, and between NIFTEM-Kundli and Massey University covering research, student mobility and academic exchange.

The countries also unveiled an India-New Zealand Joint Action Plan on Sport focused on athlete development, sports science, coaching and high-performance programmes.

Cultural cooperation was expanded through a new arrangement between the two governments and a partnership between the National Maritime Heritage Complex at Lothal and the New Zealand Maritime Museum.

The Roadmap to 2030 outlines six pillars for the Strategic Partnership, including political engagement, defence and security, trade and economic cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, education and science, and regional and multilateral coordination.

At the geopolitical level, both sides reaffirmed support for a free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific, backed freedom of navigation under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, called for reform of the United Nations Security Council and reiterated New Zealand’s support for India’s candidature as a permanent member of an expanded Security Council.

The leaders also jointly condemned terrorism in all its forms, called for stronger global action against terror financing and safe havens, and reiterated the need for dialogue and diplomacy to address conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

While the Strategic Partnership significantly broadens bilateral cooperation, the FTA provides its commercial foundation. By reducing trade barriers and creating new opportunities across agriculture, manufacturing, services and investment, both governments are positioning the agreement as the principal engine for achieving their NZ$7 billion trade ambition by the end of the decade.