Chris Hipkins is citing shortage of time and other “pressing priorities” for having not got stronger relations going with India, while denying his new push towards New Delhi was an election gimmick.
“No, not at all,” the prime minister told The Indian Weekender when asked if his promise to lead a delegation to India was motivated by the needs of an election campaign.
“You know, international trade has been the focus of my brief prime ministership. I've only been in the job since January. And I would have loved to have been able to squeeze in a visit to India during that time. It just wasn't possible, unfortunately, to do that.”
The visit by National’s John Key in 2016 was the last time a New Zealand prime minister visited India. The fact Hipkins and his predecessor Jacinda Ardern never followed up is often cited as an indication India has been low on priority for the Labour government.
But weeks ahead of the October 14 general election, Hipkins announced he will lead a prime ministerial delegation to India within 100 days if he were to lead a government again.
The prime minister says he can’t speak for the time Ardern led the Labour government, but during the nearly six months he has been at the helm, he has “covered a lot of ground internationally”, with a lot of pressing priorities as a result of the borders having been closed.
“So I visited China, because that's our largest trading relationship…I visited the US, the UK and the European Union, because we actually had free trade agreements there.
“India, in my mind, is the next priority after having done those three things. Other than Australia, of course, we visited there twice. And so I think that that's why I've signalled that it should be the first priority after the election,” says Hipkins.
The National Party’s prime ministerial candidate Chris Luxon has already been bullish about building stronger bilateral relations with India, and has promised to pursue a free trade agreement with New Delhi if he were to become the prime minister.
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