Roadmap to 2030: India, New Zealand seal 18 pacts across defence, trade and security
India and New Zealand elevated bilateral ties to a "Strategic Partnership" and adopted the "India-New Zealand Strategic Partnership: Roadmap to 2030," setting out cooperation across political, defence, trade, and people-to-people pillars through 2030
Eighteen agreements and arrangements were concluded, including a Maritime Cooperation Arrangement, an Implementing Arrangement on Hydrography and Nautical Cartography, and a Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement covering the maritime domain
Both sides announced an annual Maritime Security Dialogue and welcomed New Zealand's decision to lead the Maritime Security pillar under India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, with a focus on countering Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing
An aspirational target of doubling bilateral trade to NZ$7 billion by 2030 was set, alongside continued cooperation between the two navies under multinational maritime task forces in the Western Indian Ocean
Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI)
The IPOI is India's non-treaty, voluntary framework for maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, proposed by the Prime Minister at the ASEAN-led East Asia Summit in Bangkok in November 2019. Rather than creating a new institution, it leans on the existing East Asia Summit mechanism, inviting one or more "lead" countries to steer each of seven thematic pillars while other states join voluntarily.
Key Details
- Launched: 4 November 2019, at the 14th East Asia Summit, Bangkok
- Seven pillars: Maritime Security; Maritime Ecology; Maritime Resources; Capacity Building and Resource Sharing; Disaster Risk Reduction and Management; Science, Technology and Academic Cooperation; and Trade, Connectivity and Maritime Transport
- It is voluntary and non-binding, with no standing secretariat — cooperation is organised bilaterally or plurilaterally around each pillar
New Zealand has taken up the Maritime Security pillar of the IPOI, with IUU fishing as its specific area of focus, giving the abstract seven-pillar framework a concrete bilateral expression backed by the new annual Maritime Security Dialogue.
Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement (MLSA) — India's Non-Basing Defence Logistics Pacts
An MLSA is a reciprocal arrangement allowing the armed forces of two countries to access each other's designated military facilities — fuel, food, billeting, transport, repair and maintenance — for authorised port calls, exercises, and humanitarian missions. It is explicitly not a basing agreement and does not create permanent foreign military presence.
Key Details
- India's template for such pacts originates from the 2016 India-US Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), one of four "foundational" India-US defence agreements (alongside COMCASA, 2018, and BECA, 2020)
- India has since signed comparable logistics arrangements with Australia, Japan, France, Singapore, and South Korea
- These pacts are reciprocal and access-based (not treaty alliances), reflecting India's long-standing policy of avoiding formal military alliances while deepening operational interoperability
The maritime-domain MLSA concluded with New Zealand extends this established Indian practice of building a lattice of non-alliance logistics arrangements with Indo-Pacific partners, rather than entering a mutual-defence treaty.
Multinational Maritime Task Forces — Combined Maritime Forces (CMF)
The Combined Maritime Forces is a 34-nation naval coalition headquartered in Bahrain that runs several task forces to counter terrorism, narcotics smuggling, and piracy across the Western Indian Ocean, Gulf of Oman, and Red Sea. Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150), one of its task forces, focuses on maritime security and counter-narcotics/counter-smuggling operations across a roughly two-million-square-mile area of operations.
Key Details
- CMF is headquartered in Bahrain; India participates as an associate/partner nation rather than a full CMF member
- New Zealand has held rotating command roles within CMF task forces, including CTF-150, with India contributing ships and personnel to joint operations
- CTF-150's mandate has broadened over time from counter-terrorism to counter-narcotics and anti-piracy, reflecting evolving non-traditional maritime security threats
India-New Zealand naval cooperation under CMF task forces such as CTF-150 forms an existing operational backdrop to the newly signed Maritime Cooperation Arrangement, illustrating how bilateral and multinational maritime security efforts reinforce each other in the Indo-Pacific.
- Strategic Partnership and Roadmap to 2030 adopted: 10-11 July 2026, first Indian prime ministerial visit to New Zealand in 40 years
- 18 agreements signed, including the Maritime Cooperation Arrangement, Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement, and Hydrography/Nautical Cartography implementing arrangement
- Trade target: doubling bilateral trade to NZ$7 billion by 2030
- IPOI: launched November 2019 at the East Asia Summit; seven pillars; New Zealand leads the Maritime Security pillar with an IUU-fishing focus
- India's logistics-agreement partners besides New Zealand's new arrangement: United States (LEMOA, 2016), Australia, Japan, France, Singapore, South Korea