Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have agreed on Saturday to deepen the relationship between New Zealand and India. They will now treat each other as "strategic partners" — a term that signals stronger ties in areas like trade, defence and security.

The two leaders met at Government House in Auckland. Modi arrived in New Zealand on Friday night. This is the first visit by an Indian prime minister to New Zealand in 40 years.

The two countries have signed a plan called the "Roadmap to 2030" that sets out what they want to achieve together over the next few years. The main goals are to double the amount of goods New Zealand sells to India and to work more closely on defence and security in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. One key agreement is a Maritime Cooperation Arrangement — a formal deal between the two countries' defence forces that puts a framework around work they have already been doing together.

The two leaders also committed to working together against serious crime — things like drug trafficking, financial crime, cybercrime, terrorism, people smuggling and human trafficking.

Luxon said the partnership is important because New Zealand's safety and prosperity depend on a stable region. He has said before, during a visit to India in March 2025, that New Zealand wants to join a group called the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, which Modi supported. Modi's visit this weekend is returning that invitation.

A major part of the deal is trade. Luxon said that 57 percent of what New Zealand sells to India will no longer have import taxes on it, under a new trade agreement between the two countries. This agreement took more than a year to negotiate.

New Zealand's Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Defence Minister Chris Penk were at the formal meeting. India sent its National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was not there — he was in Singapore and Japan instead. His absence will likely prompt questions, because Peters has been a key figure in how New Zealand talks about the wider region.

When you compare what was agreed this weekend to what was promised when Luxon visited India in March 2025, the new partnership looks like New Zealand and India are now putting those earlier promises into action. Whether the deal succeeds will depend less on the words used about "strategic partnership" than on whether the two countries actually double their trade and carry out their defence cooperation plans by 2030.