Dr S Jaishankar, India’s Minister of External Affairs and Nanaia Nahuta, New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister discussed Covid-19, international travel resumption, mutual recognition of vaccine passports, the return of stranded residents and climate change, among other topics, in a virtual meeting on Friday night NZ time.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender after the meeting, India’s High Commissioner in New Zealand Muktesh Pardeshi said that besides these topics which were discussed in the main, there were broad discussions on a number of other bilateral matters throughout the 45-minute-long meeting. Both Mr Pardeshi and his counterpart in India, NZ High Commissioner in New Delhi, David Pine, attended.
Dr Jaishankar reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention at the G20 summit, where he said that the key to post-Covid recovery was the resumption of international travel. He said that the world now acknowledges that it is safe for double vaccinated people to travel internationally. He also said that it was desirable that both countries mutually recognise each other’s vaccine certificates.
[Double vaccinated travellers from India can undertake quarantine free travel to most of the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. India already has a digital QRcoded vaccine certificate for its double vaccinated citizens].
Matters relating to stranded people owing to long border closures was also discussed. Referring to the meeting, Dr Jaishankar later tweeted, “Discussed the predicament of those stranded by travel restrictions. Resumption of travel is central to economic and social recovery.”
New Zealand’s response to the points relating to international travel and the opening of borders hinged on the country achieving 90 per cent vaccination levels.
Minister Nanaia Mahuta later tweeted, “Great korero with my Indian counterpart @DrSJaishankar yesterday. Aotearoa New Zealand remains committed to closer cooperation across all spheres of the New Zealand-India relationship.”
Dr Jaishankar said India was on track to produce five billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and to become a reliable and affordable source of vaccines to the world. He said he looked forward to working with New Zealand in making vaccines available to Pacific Island nations going forward.
Dr Jaishankar referred to his visit to Glasgow for the COP26 summit. He said while India had set the year 2070 as its Zero Carbon target, it was actively working on increasing share of developing and using non-fossil and renewable energy sources. Access to finance and alternative technologies was key to success in combating climate change, he said. He invited New Zealand to be part of these alternative initiatives especially in the Indo Pacific, working with vulnerable Pacific Islands.
[India has been part of the International Solar Alliance since 2015 with France as co-sponsor. It is an alliance to promote solar technologies worldwide, increasing solar energy capacity of several countries. India is also part of CDRI, Coalition of Disaster Resistant Infrastructure that promotes and help build adaptation and resilience projects against climate change and natural disasters.]
This was the second virtual call between the two foreign ministers, Mr Pardeshi told The Indian Weekender. There was a plan for a personal meeting in New York on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly earlier this year, but Minister Mahuta did not travel to that meeting. Dr Jaishankar had also been in close touch with then Foreign Minister Winston Peters in the previous government, Mr Pardeshi said.
Both ministers agreed on mutual visits to the two countries when border settings are appropriate.
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