India, March 16 -- The Government of India issued the following news release:

India and New Zealand share a longstanding partnership founded on shared democratic values, strong people-to-people ties, and economic complementarities. Both countries have continuously worked towards building their bilateral relationship encompassing trade and investment.

On the eve of the bilateral meeting between the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi and the Right Honourable Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister of New Zealand and in the spirit of deepening our economic co-operation, the two nations are pleased to announce the launch of negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotia...