Modi meets New Zealand counterpart; invites her to visit India

Manila, Nov 15: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested for deepening of bilateral relations with New Zealand especially in the field of renewable energy and related fields even as Mr Modi and his counterpart Jacinda Ardern invited each other to visit respective countries.

"Prime Minister (Modi) suggested deepening cooperation in the renewable energy sector and related fields and both the Prime Ministers, as in our Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of New Zealand invited each other to visit their respective countries (during their one-on-one meeting here on Tuesday)," a senior official in the Indian External Affairs Ministry said here. Secretary East, in the External Affairs Ministry, Preeti Saran told reporters here on Tuesday that the deliberations between the two leaders were for the first time. "This is the first opportunity for our Prime Minister to meet with the new Prime Minister of New Zealand so our Prime Minister very warmly congratulated her for her election," she said. Ms Saran further said Mr Modi also mentioned the importance of the Indian diaspora’s presence in New Zealand and the importance of greater collaboration especially the need for New Zealand becoming an "important destination" for Bollywood - film shooting. "Already Indian cinema has been an important source of encouraging tourism from India to New Zealand and that was reiterated," Ms Saran said, adding that Mr Modi recalled that India's second highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan was given to Edmund Hillary -- the famous mountainer. Hillary has been a "household name in India", she said. "These are people to people contacts. Of course the Indian students community issue was taken up in the sense that yes more self-financed because New Zealand is a democracy. It is an English speaking country, it had the potential, like several other countries, to attract more Indian students into New Zealand," Ms Saran said. During deliberations, Mr Modi also spoke about the popular game of cricket -- another sector that sees lot of mutual interests. UNI