Plenty of pomp for PM in India
Prime Minister John Key has been officially welcomed in New Delhi with all the pomp and ceremony you would expect in a country heaving with culture and colour.
It took Key 43 hours from leaving Auckland to land on Indian soil after the scheduled 20-hour journey hit a snag when the airforce plane Key and his delegation were travelling on broke down in Townsville, Australia.
But that was all quickly forgotten yesterday when Key and his entourage were greeted at Rashtrapai Bhavan, home of President Pranab Mukherjee, where there was a stunning procession of horses carrying lances with flags and horsemen in traditional uniform.
The red carpet was rolled out and Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Key and his wife, Bronagh, as they all posed for Indian and New Zealand media.
Key spoke briefly at the end of the welcome, thanking Modi and saying he looked forward to discussing economic opportunities between the two countries when they met again later in the day.
Key’s last visit to India was in 2011 and while he missed the Mumbai leg of this trip, which was cancelled due to the delays, the priority of the visit - a meeting with Modi - had not been affected.
Modi was elected for his undertaking to reform economic policy and Key said that was a good basis for finally getting a free trade agreement over the line.
After 10 rounds of negotiations and no deal, New Zealand is desperate to get something signed as India is set to be the most populous country in the world by 2026.
‘‘We want to diversify the markets we sell into. It’s not that we can’t find a home for what we produce but as I’ve always said we don’t want to have all our eggs in the Chinese basket,’’ Key said yesterday.
‘‘We want to have them in a variety of baskets around the world.’’
A deal with India is worth billions of dollars in trade and has benefits for India as New Zealand could help ‘‘strengthen and improve their capacity to produce their own food’’.
‘‘If you accept today that we’re doing $2.5 billion worth of business with New Zealand and India and we do $20 billion with China - you get a bit of a sense for a country with the same demographics and what the opportunities are.
‘‘This is an economy in India where they’re creating one million jobs a month,’’ he said.
Key said the trip and the meeting with Modi were an opportunity to ‘‘expand the political dialogue we have going with each other and put some political momentum’’ behind a free trade deal with India.
‘‘Realistically we’re in the process of negotiating one . . . but I think it needs that push from the top to give it that reason for the negotiators to put their shoulder to the wheel.’’
Key is frank that the current offer does not cut the mustard in terms of lifting tariffs on key markets for New Zealand, particularly dairy.
‘‘Obviously we do want to see some movement in [dairy], it’s important to us.’’
The concern in India is that a trade deal that includes dairy would do damage within their own country but Key says that’s not the case. ’’We’re not there to put anyone’s farmers out of business.’’ ❚ Time for blue-sky thinking, A7
"We don’t want to have all our eggs in the Chinese basket." Prime Minister John Key on getting an Indian trade deal