Ardern assures Jaishankar on plight of Indian students

“I urged the Prime Minister[Jacinda Ardern] and Foreign Minister[Nanaia Mahuta] to take a sympathetic and understanding view of the predicament of those Indian students who were here, and was glad to be assured that they would clearly approach the issue sympathetically. So I hope to see some progress in that regard,” said India’s External Affairs Minster S. Jaishankar.

Jaishankar was referencing the plight of Indian students studying in New Zealand before the pandemic, and who had been unable to renew their visas to return to complete their studies.

India’s foreign minister was speaking at a function to inaugurate the new chancery building of the Indian High Commission in Wellington today.

Jaishankar, the first Indian foreign minister to visit New Zealand in 21 years, left for Australia  after the inauguration.

He pointed out that students were hit harder by Covid than others, because they were at a stage where their  “lifetime possibilities” had been impacted.

Jaishankar said that in recent years the prime ministers of the two countries, Narendra Modi and Jacinda Ardern, had established a relationship and met from time to time on the sidelines of events. He noted that the Ardern “was among the few to join us at Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th anniversary celebrations at the United Nations.”

“It does make a difference when the leaders at the highest level are in touch with each other,” Jaishankar observed, and quipped: “It also makes a difference that the foreign ministers actually get along very well.”

Jaishankar said the India-NZ relationship was due for an upgrade.

“ In this world of ours, no one is really too far. There is no country in the world today where we can say that we are indifferent, or uninterested or uninvolved. And that’s the baseline. More positive, optimistic societies see merits, opportunities and possibilities in others,” he said.

India’s relationship with New Zealand was part of that optimistic vision of the world, he explained.

Jaishankar emphasised that the two countries must  find ways of “doing more business.”

“At the end of the day, business is a ballast for any relationship.”

Jaishankar said he had multiple opportunities during his visit to NZ to send out the message that India was open for business, that there were areas “where New Zealand’s  capabilities, experiences and best practices can make a big difference, “ through partnerships and joint ventures.

The other area that clearly invites the two countries to do more is the digital domain, he said.

“Perhaps the most remarkable change taking place in India is in the domain of digital public goods. India has been able to create a digital platform and, on that platform, we are able to deliver services to the people on a scale, efficiency and honesty which could not have been imagined just a few years ago,” the minister pointed out.

Jaishankar summed up the scale of India’s accomplishments.

India has demonstrated that it is capable of “actually giving full support to 800 million people, that we can put money in the banks of 400 million people, that we can think in terms of a rapidly growing health system which [has benefited people ] in hundreds of millions. We are looking at house ownership programmes [where] again the beneficiaries exceed 100 million. We are looking at farmers’ support programmes which run into hundreds of millions. “

Jaishankar said he would like to encourage India and New Zealand to partner in knowledge driven businesses that depended on creativity, innovation and human talent .

He acknowledged New Zealand’s global reputation in the agro and dairy business and saw great benefits for India in that partnership.

The Indian foreign minister then turned his focus to education and the Narendra Modi government’s new National Education policy. “One of the goals of the new policy is to make education in India much more open to international collaboration,” he said.

The smart economies were those who allowed the free flow and mobility of skills and talent in “a more seamless manner.”

Jaishankar said one of the proposals he made to the New Zealand government during his visit was to see whether the two countries could agree on a “mobility partnership.”

Jaishankar identified traditional medicine as an area of emerging interest for both countries. ” The Covid period has brought home to many of us the merits of drawing on our traditions and heritage.”

He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had set up its first global traditional  medicine centre in India.

“As we grow that, I think there are possibilities there for partnerships in which we would like to include New Zealand.”

Jaishankar referred to the recent visit by the Indian Navy Chief Admiral Hari Kumar to NZ and noted that , among the outcomes of that visit, was the agreement  on White Shipping, which was essentially about keeping the shipping lanes safe.

He closed his address by invoking the memory of the Indian soldiers who died at Gallipoli [ in the Anzac war].  “The number of Indians who gave up their lives at Gallipoli are almost half the number of New Zeaanders.”

This indicated New Zealand and India had a shared history, he noted.

Earlier, Indian High Commissioner Neeta Bhushan, in her welcome address, said the Indian External Affairs Minister‘s  visit coincided with the commemoration of 75 years of Indian Independence, as well as 70 years of the establishment of  diplomatic relations between India and New Zealand.

The chancery project was started in 2016 under the leadership of the minister when he was the Foreign Secretary of India, she noted.

“ And it is only befitting that the formal inauguration [of the new chancery building] is done by him today as the External Affairs Minister,” she said.

The High Commissioner said the chancery building is “a reflection of the new India encompassing both tradition as well as modernity and stands out as a symbol of India- New Zealand friendship and partnership.

She thanked Bhav Dhillon, the Honorary Consul of India in Auckland, and Chris Wood, the foreign secretary at the New Zealand Ministry of  Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), and other dignitaries present on the occasion.