During a short trip to Laos, Luxon scores a diplomatic win

Friday, 11 October 2024

VIENTIANE, LAOS | Christopher Luxon has secured his first face-to-face meeting with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, a diplomatic coup for the Kiwi prime minister’s visit to East Asia.

The relationship between Luxon and Modi appeared to be on the right track. During their sit down on Thursday evening (local time), Modi officially invited Luxon to visit India. The two prime ministers then sat next to each other during a big gala dinner that night.

Their discussion appeared to continue, in-depth, as the formal dinner kicked off.

Luxon is in Laos as it hosts the East Asia Summit. His short visit to Vientiane, the capital of this communist nation, has so far seen him dine with leaders from across East Asia and meet with old diplomatic friends from Australia and Canada.

But his meeting with Modi marked a strategic win, as a first step towards making good on his election campaign promise of securing a free trade agreement with the world’s second most populated country.

While he campaigned on locking in a free trade agreement, Luxon went into the meeting pointing out that there was a lot of groundwork to get through before such an agreement could be realised.

“We haven't really had a presence in India in recent times. As a result, our trade actually went down in the last six years and it’s very small. I want to build back that relationship because they are a key player in the Indo-Pacific region,” Luxon said.

During the election, Luxon also said he would visit India during his first year as prime minister. But on Thursday he said he was planning to visit India next year instead.

He said he’d compared calendars with Modi, and there wasn’t much free space with a series of international gatherings; this summit, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, APEC and for Modi, the G7 as well.

“It was just very difficult for us to practically make it happen between now and Christmas, and then New Zealand has its summer holiday,” Luxon said.

Two-way trade between India and New Zealand amounted to $2.4 billion last year - but the vast majority of that was imports. New Zealand exported $512 million worth of goods to India during that time.

Middle East conflict on the agenda with NZ allies

Luxon’s first meeting in Laos was a coffee catch up with Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau and Australia’s Anthony Albanese.

That trio of prime ministers now a have a collective name, calling their meeting “the Canz”. Trudeau organised it.

While the location was casual, the topics were of extreme severity.

Luxon said the Middle East crisis was on the agenda.

The Canz grouping, an example of what Luxon called “a mini-lateral framework”, started out to voice concern about Israel's actions in Gaza. Those three nations were also Five Eyes partners, but their concerns have not been echoed by the other two “eyes”, the US and UK.

“Primarily, it’s been about us having more voice on our positions in the Middle East. We want to see Hamas release hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza,” he said.

“We are all concerned about the international rules-based system being at risk.”

Trudeau said, at the start of their coffee catch up, that the Canz crew were “like-minded in pushing for de-escalation” and “committed to a path to a two-state solution”.

Albanese said also noted the trio's desire for 'peace and security and prosperity for all citizens in the Middle East, whether they be Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese'.

Luxon’s last day in Laos

There are meetings penned for Luxon on Friday. He’s set to meet with the newly elected Thai prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, and Bongbong Marcos, the Philippines president with whom he appears to have formed something of a friendship with in recent months.

Luxon planned to meet with the president of Laos, Thongloun Sisoulith, on Thursday - but that meeting didn’t go ahead given Sisoulith was delayed talking to other leaders. They did, however, have a decent chat on the red carpet of the Laotian National Convention Centre as the gala kicked off.

Luxon couldn’t wait for the formal bi-lat, because he had a speech to give at the Asean economic business and investment summit.

“It’s no surprise that, when Asean calls, we come together, convening around your leaders,” Luxon told the crowd, gathered at a convention centre that had a gold bullion vending machine and a “TikTok shop”.

He told the crowd, many who were involved with the Asean development bank: “As a former CEO and now a politician, I have come to see that while politicians and private sector leaders often face criticism, the work we do is critical to both the growth of the region and its enduring international ties.”

In total, Luxon would be in Laos for just under two days. He was set to return to New Zealand later on Friday.