India-New Zealand Defence Dialogue advances talks on maritime security, joint training

Wellington [New Zealand]: New Delhi and Wellington advanced their discussions on further strengthening their defence partnership with a focus on maritime security and joint training during the 2nd India-New Zealand Defence Strategic Dialogue.

Sharing the details in a post on X, the official account of the Directorate of Public Relations, Ministry of Defence said that Joint Secretary Amitabh Prasad and Deputy Secretary, New Zealand Ministry of Defence, Richard Schmidt co-chaired the 2nd India New Zealand Defence Strategic Dialogue in Wellington, New Zealand.

The post further highlighted that the talks also focused on working upon the objectives of Roadmap 2030, which was announced earlier this year during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to New Zealand in July. Along with PM Christopher Luxon, he had announced the creation of the India-New Zealand Strategic Partnership Roadmap 2030-- as a shared framework to guide joint action and further strengthen the ties over the next four years.


"The Dialogue focused on advancing maritime security, joint training and #defencecooperation, while furthering the objectives of the Roadmap 2030," the post said.


Defence and security cooperation forms one of the six pillars of the partnership.

The Roadmap 2030 outlined that New Delhi and Wellington agreed to continue to pursue military interaction via exercises, visits of units (maritime, air, land), short-term personnel exchanges, sporting visits, defence staff college exchanges, and high-level defence dialogues.

The partners also agreed to enhance dialogue on defence related matters, including at the Ministerial level, pursue cooperation on maritime matters, operationalize the Memorandum of Arrangement establishing a Joint Working Group (JWG) on Counter-Terrorism (CT), and engage on shared cyber security priorities through the India-New Zealand Cyber Dialogue.

Other key areas include working towards the formalisation of the India-New Zealand Memorandum of Arrangement on Cooperation in Combating Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances, Precursor Chemicals and Related Matters and the formalisation of a Memorandum of Arrangement between National Investigation Agency of India and the New Zealand Police on law enforcement cooperation.