Todd McClay is drawing upon chapati camaraderie during one of New Zealand’s most revered war campaigns as he tries to reinvigorate trade with the South Asian giant.
On his one-day trip to India this week, the new trade minister talked of the Gallipoli campaign during World War 1 (WWI), in which more than 8,000 Australian and nearly 3,000 Kiwi soldiers died, a memory that is observed as Anzac Day now.
“Legend has it that in WWI, New Zealand rations were so terrible in Gallipoli, that our men frequently relied on the kindness of their Indian comrades sharing their chapatis – the origins of New Zealand-India trade perhaps?” he quipped during a speech in New Delhi.
Not many people know it, but at least 1,358 Indian soldiers also laid their lives fighting alonside the Anzac contingent during the 1915-16 campaign.
Being subjects of the Crown under British rule, Indians had no choice but to participate in the war, which was certainly not of their making and a war that they were sent to fight in simply because they were recruits of the British Indian Army.
McClay’s trip to India, his first overseas trip as the country’s trade minister, was high on optics and aimed at delivering a key message of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon-led government–New Zealand is serious about doing business with India.
“It is my intention to return to India next year with a trade delegation and I hope to welcome [Indian Trade] Minister Goyal and Indian businesses to New Zealand,” McClay said.
“There is no better way of knowing each other than to spend time in each others’ homes – to share chapatis. Let’s make it a transformational year for the India New Zealand relationship, and let’s be creative and ambitious about what can be achieved with the knowledge that we are in this for the long run.”
