New Zealand PM Luxon tries his hands at ‘gully cricket’ in India
Prime Minister of New Zealand Christopher Luxon shared pictures of him and former New Zealand cricketer Ross Taylor playing ‘gully cricket’ with children in New Delhi.
Luxon is in India for a five-day official visit on March 16. He was the chief guest at the 10th edition of Raisina Dialogue 2025 and also delivered the keynote address.
Luxon was accompanied by former New Zealand cricketer Ross Taylor.
During his India visit, New Zealand PM Luxon also visited the India Gate and shared a photo in a post on X.
He had also visited the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple in Delhi on Tuesday. “The Hindu community in New Zealand has made a large contribution to our country. Today in Delhi, I paid my respects at a place sacred to many Kiwi-Hindus – the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple,” posted Luxon on X.
Luxon’s keynote address
During his keynote address at the recently-concluded Raisina Dialogue 2025, highlighted the long-standing relationship between Indians and New Zealanders.
“It is more than 200 years since Indians and New Zealanders began living side by side. Just as they were 200 years ago, ‘Kiwi-Indians’ today are fully integrated into our multicultural society,” he said.
While underscoring the significant presence of the Indian diaspora in New Zealand, he said that New Zealanders of Indian heritage comprise 11 per cent of the people living in Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city.
India-NZ ties
Christopher Luxon on Tuesday said he looks forward to signing a free trade agreement with India in 60 days, a move which is expected to increase bilateral trade by 10 times over ten years.
After a gap of about ten years, India and New Zealand on March 16 announced resumption of negotiations for a proposed free trade agreement to boost economic ties.
India and New Zealand began negotiating the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) in April 2010 to boost trade in goods, services, and investment. However, after nine rounds of discussions, the talks stalled in 2015.
According to think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), India’s proposed FTA with New Zealand would have limited benefits to domestic companies as they are already enjoying duty-free access that market for a significant number of goods.
New Zealand’s average import tariff is just 2.3 per cent, compared to India’s 17.8 per cent, it has said.
The bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $873.4 million (exports $538.33 million and imports $335 million) in 2023-24 as against $1.02 billion in 2022-23.
