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Adam Pearse: NZ Herald Political Reporter on the meeting between Christopher Luxon and Narendra Modi · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the big news is India and the Prime Minister
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: has met with India's PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and we'll be talking with Mike Hosking shortly. Of course.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: The Prime Minister has been leading a delegation into India
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: this week and has announced free trade negotiations will begin
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: next month. And that announcement came as soon as they landed. Basically,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Tom McClay was already there. I mean he lives there
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: now basically, and this is great for lux and politically
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: well at least he was thought so. So both leaders
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: have signed memorandums of understanding and key areas like defense,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: education and forestry. And the New Zealand Herald political reporter
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Adam Pearce has been traveling to India and has witnessed
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the whole thing and joins you, now, hello, Adam good a,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: how are you good? That welcome for Christopher Luxen was
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: quite something.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it certainly was. It's true what they say about
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: India being a bit of an assault on the census
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: when you first kind of land. But no, certainly it
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: has been all go since really minute one. We have
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: had free trade negotiations confirmed as resuming as of next month.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was really something that us as reporters
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: traveling with the Prime minister, we were expecting that to
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: escually was going to be an announcement. It was going
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: to come towards the ends, you know, after there's been
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: some talks, and particularly after or at least after Prime
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Mister Christopher Luxon had met with Prime Minister Mody, so
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: certainly set the tone for the trip. And it's really
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: continued with the meeting that we've had with Prime Minister
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Mody today India time was yesterday in New Zealm time,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: which seems to have gone gone pretty well. The pir
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: seemed to get on. They've spent quite a bit of
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: time together actually today with a couple of events that
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: ordinarily you wouldn't actually expect someone like Prime Minister Modi
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: to take pat in. So we're good signs for reluxtion.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and he In fact, Christopher Luxson spoke at
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: India's Premier Defense and Security conference today just a few
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: minutes ago. Really and this is the first time a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: foreigner has been invited to address the conference. So how
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: big a deal was that?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, not quite the first time that foreigners addressed
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: the conference has been a couple of others, but it's
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: kind of it is primarily European leaders, so certainly significant
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: that we've got Christopher Luxon and the addressing, addressing a
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: crowd full of whether there's several heads of government there,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: a lot of foreign ministers. He actually gave a pretty
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: good speak was it was probably about twenty minutes talking
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: about New Zealand's relationship with India, advertise there how they're
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: looking to boost defense cooperation, but also how New Zealand
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: and how Christopher Luxeon sees the world evolving, particularly as
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: we see what's going on with the US and Donald
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Trump's trade war, what we're seeing with China, and how
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: particularly in the Pacific moving in in area, so especially
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: with the Cook Islands, Solomon Islands. I think so really
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: interesting to see his take on there. And it's quite
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: a form as well. This is India's premiere defense and
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: security conference, and he held himself pretty well. You know,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: sometimes lux And as we've seen, struggles to can struggle
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: to hit the right notes sometimes, but I mean this
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: was a big deal for him to take on that role,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: big deal to take on that speech, and I think
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: he's managed himself pretty well.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: So going forward, what do these memorandums of understanding actually mean.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Oh look, I mean you can put as much value
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: to them as you like, but they simply signal priority areas.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: You know, so education as an obvious one, right, and
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: education has been one of the main attractions for New
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Zealand to attract people from India. You know, our quality
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: education facilities, and you know areas like tourism, sport in particular,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: very proud sporting relationship between the two countries. So you know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: it really just does signal the way forward, the priority areas.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: And rocketry obviously in defense and also their space aspirations
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and not dairy which you can understand they don't need
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: us now, but they might need us in the future.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Well that's the thing we've often heard from christ Lux
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: in the days, you know, from when this trip started,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: about how India's population is changing. It's becoming more wealthy,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: there are more people entering that middle class and therefore,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: you know, those those specific niche markets that dairy can
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: can access will become bigger, offering up opportunities. However, you know,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: the majority of the dairy industry here in India, small
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: scale farming outfits. And as we've known, both past negotiations
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: have not been successful because they want to protect their market.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: So it'll come. Who knows when.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly right. Dairy came in twenty years after the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Chinese Free Trade Dealer, and it will come. They've got
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: three hundred million towns and India low yields two liter
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: a cow. We're at like eight. They will need.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Us for more. From Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen
• 5:10
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• 5:13
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