With reports coming from Townsville confirming that Prime Minister John Key's visit has been shortened due to forced cancellation of the flight carrying the high profile delegation, it is important to do a quick review of the expectations from this visit.
Mumbai has been skipped from Prime Minister's itinerary.
Essentially Mumbai stop was focussed on education and IT - the two fastest growing segment in the overall mutual trade in services between the two countries.
Expectedly, there is a sense of despondency among several delegates from educational institutes, who were eyeing Mumbai to market their respective institutes to the prospective international students.
There are unconfirmed reports from the IWK special correspondent travelling with the delegation that several educational representatives have chosen to cut short their India visit, post the recent rescheduling of the travel plan.
However, Prime Minister has chosen to use this opportunity to send signals ahead to his Indian counterparts to discuss politics behind the FTA and NSG.
Prime minister was speaking to media representatives accompanying him on the trip to India.
Technically, Prime Minister and the delegation will have more time at their disposal in New Delhi - essentially the power centre of India, thus giving more opportunity to discuss the politics behind two important issues between both the countries, FTA and NSG.
It is important to note that the main hindrance in the signing of an FTA between the two countries is the risk of 'political cost' imposed on the Indian decision makers by signing an FTA with New Zealand.
With this enhanced possibility of more time in New Delhi, there could be a possibility of some significant movement on FTA, provided their Indian counterparts also chose to a maximise this opportunity.
There is an opportunity for both leaders to spend some more time on ironing out differences on the FTA.
New Zealand, being an economic powerhouse in the dairy and agriculture sector generates a sense of fear among Indian decision makers.
The politics of this fear could possibly be offset by the politics of NSG.
Prime Minister John Key has shown an enhanced understanding of India's quest for NSG membership purely because of its low carbon energy needs.
With more time at their disposal, the Indian side has an opportunity to play up the FTA card for seeking New Zealand's support for NSG membership.
For long there have been whispers among the track - II level diplomacy between the two countries that India and New Zealand can move their mountains by swapping FTA with NSG.
The government and the Prime Minister himself have been non-committal most of the times.
Although what happens in the future still remains to be seen, yet an opportunity has been made available to spend more time on political issues between the two nations.
Stay tuned with the Indian weekender for more on PM visit to India.
Leave a Comment