2016 - A year of missed India visits

In a rare tweak of destiny, the year 2016 can be safely declared as a year of missed India visits from the New Zealand's political elites.

Till now there have been three occasions of scheduled visit from the New Zealand Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition and all three have their shares of forced delay and cancellation.

In last two months, Labour Leader Andrew Little has to cancel his India visit the second time.

Earlier, it was due to the shock waves of the deadly Kaikoura earthquake in the South Island.

Now, it is due to the political shock waves send by the surprise resignation of the Prime Minister John Key.

It started in October with Prime Minister John Key's official Royal New Zealand Air Force Boeing 757 broke down in the Australian town Townsville en-route to India.

Earlier it was anticipated as a minor technical snag, however; later it turned out to be a major technical problem floundering repeated attempts to take off from the Australian town.

Eventually, the flight had to be aborted, and another New Zealand Defence Force plane was called from Antarctica to take the Prime Minister entourage to India.

There was more than twelve hours delay which necessitated the cancellation of Mumbai leg of PM's India trip.

Mumbai is the financial centre of India, and many important business-to-business engagements between the two countries had to be abandoned due to that forced delay.

Apart from this, another interesting though a trivial, connection between India and New Zealand's political elites is the fact that Prime Minister John Key's India visit in October this year was his last official bilateral visit to any foreign country as the Prime Minister of the country.

John Key had travelled to Peru to attend the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting from November 19-20.

Before Peru, Prime Minister was scheduled to travel to Argentina for an official bilateral visit for a series of meetings aimed at strengthening New Zealand’s trade, economic and political ties with the region.

Eventually, his Argentina visit was cancelled due to Kaikoura earthquakes.

Thereby making India visit as his last official bilateral visit in the capacity as the Prime Minister of New Zealand.