We’ve got our FTA with India - now, it’s time to get over there
Tuesday, 23 December 2025
Sarah Meikle runs All India Permit Tours, specialising in small group, luxury travel to all parts of India.
OPINION: New Zealand and India have just signed a free trade agreement. It’s long-awaited and great news for the business relationship between our two countries.
Am I excited? As someone who spends almost half the year in India, and runs a busy business shepherding others visiting the sub-continent, yes - I’m thrilled. Do I have concerns? Also, 100% yes.
Because, I’m not convinced New Zealanders really understand India.
The FTA is a hell of an opportunity for New Zealand to establish a true partnership with the most populous country on Earth - one that goes well beyond kiwifruit, wool and forestry. It’s a massive opportunity for tourism, education and technology, too.
Yet for many Kiwis, India remains as foreign as outer Mongolia. Most New Zealanders have never been there. It seems that those who have the means would rather book a beach holiday in Rarotonga than spend a few additional hours on a flight to touch down in one of the world's oldest civilisations.
And I think that needs to change.
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Successful trade is built on mutual cultural understanding. A signature on a piece of paper is a good start, but how this FTA plays out relies on people. Learning how India thinks, how it negotiates and the ways it communicates is imperative if the FTA is to stand a chance of being anything more than a shallow one-night-stand of an agreement.
Like any decent marriage, this one needs solid foundations – understanding, respect, tolerance, diplomacy. It means more Kiwis committed to forging a lasting relationship. And that means going there. You just can’t build a people-to-people relationship from Auckland or Napier or Nelson, or wherever it is your business is based.
There’s too much margin for error and room for misrepresentation.
And how does misrepresentation happen? By not getting out of our collective comfort zone. New Zealand is an amazing country and as New Zealanders we love to see the world, but we also harbour opinions about many places we’ve never set foot in.
For lots of businesses, India is one such market. Distance breeds misunderstanding, and misunderstanding can easily become an outdated narrative. So if New Zealand wants a genuine partnership, we need to go there. We need to experience the Indian people, its culture, religions (yes, there are many), food (trust me, it’s a lot more than curry and lassi), customs, traditions and languages.
Which leads me to my next point. India is many worlds, not one market.
Too many New Zealanders talk about “India” as if it were a single entity, and one culture. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
There are thousands of languages spoken and understood, huge regional variations in landscape, history, culture and traditions. There are differing political dynamics and regional economies. The food is more varied in flavour, finesse and presentation than any place I’ve ever been.
It’s anything but a stereotype.
And India has fallen in love with New Zealand. It is already New Zealand’s second-largest source of international students (reportedly contributing around 14% of enrolments, according to Education New Zealand) and a rapidly growing visitor market.
Travel and education could be the quiet achievers of this FTA, if we grasp the opportunity to think more strategically about how they might strengthen long-term relationships between our two countries. A well-supported student or traveller on the ground in Aotearoa becomes a bridge between New Zealand and India – and the same goes for those of us who jump on a flight to Delhi.
For some, when they think of India, what they picture can be slums, poverty, a heaving population, crowds and chaos. But what can be initially confronting about India is also why it's such a valuable trade partner for little old Aotearoa – its scale.
It may be mighty, and changing at speed, but Indians also love to do things the old-fashioned way. Like New Zealand, many of its best businesses value trust, track record and personal connections. They are often family firms who relate well to our own whānau-based and founder-led exporters who prioritise doing things properly. Our reputation in food safety, education, agri-tech and specialised innovation already carries weight in India. That’s a great building block for us.
As someone who has worked on the ground, and continues to lead small-group tours into India, my advice is to get on a plane, meet your partners in person, and spend some decent time there. Understand the pace and the place - the landscape is everything, both figuratively and literally.
A signed agreement is a fantastic first step – and now, we need to choose how we show up. New Zealand can choose to engage deeply and early, or remain a polite observer on the sidelines. If we truly want to understand India, and be understood in return, now is the time to go, listen, learn and participate. There's no substitute for being present.