Search

Address to the Institute of International and European Affairs Leadership Forum on Climate-Smart Agriculture, 16 July 2015

It is a great pleasure to be in Dublin – it always is. I have visited Dublin regularly since my first visit in the early 1980s and my visits are always focussed on agriculture.

I would like to thank our two co-chairs, the Hon Simon Power, Chair of the NZ-US Council and Stu Van Soyoc, President of the US-based counterpart organisation for assuming joint responsibility for the Partnership Forum. I think it is a great idea for us to get together once a year with Government, media, business and other stakeholders to take a helicopter view of the relationship.

It is a pleasure to be there this afternoon.

As we have already heard today, New Zealand and India have much in common and we enjoy a long and warm relationship.

Our trade and investment relationship is one that builds on deeper foundations of history, language, people -  and of course cricket.

And it is a relationship that will continue to grow and evolve. On the surface some might say that our two countries are polar opposites – one of the world’s biggest populations in the world compared to one of the smallest and most geographically isolated.