The 2nd India NZ defence dialogue was held in Wellington on Monday, with Joint Secretary Amitabh Prasad and New Zealand Ministry of Defence Deputy Secretary Richard Schmidt co-chairing the talks. Maritime security, joint training and wider defence cooperation were on the table.

The Ministry of Defence said in a post on X that the Dialogue focused on advancing maritime security, joint training and defence cooperation, while furthering the objectives of the Roadmap 2030. A PIB release the next day described the talks as building on the shared framework set up at last month's summit-level meeting between the two countries.

What the India NZ defence dialogue builds on

This is the second edition of the Defence Strategic Dialogue between the two countries. The inaugural round was held in New Delhi on 5 August 2025, where both sides took stock of ongoing defence cooperation and identified ways to deepen it across training, capability building, defence industry, maritime security and multinational cooperation. That first meeting also opened discussions on building up a White Shipping Information Exchange between the two navies, a process officials in Wellington are understood to have carried forward.

A year on, the setting has changed and so has the surrounding structure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon elevated bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership during Modi's visit to New Zealand in July, and unveiled the Roadmap to 2030 as the framework meant to guide that partnership over the next four years.

Defence sits inside a six-pillar roadmap

Defence and security cooperation forms one of six pillars under the Roadmap to 2030, alongside political and diplomatic engagement, trade, people-to-people ties, education and innovation, and regional cooperation. Under the defence pillar, India and New Zealand agreed to continue military interaction through exercises, unit visits across the maritime, air and land domains, short-term personnel exchanges, sporting visits, defence staff college exchanges and high-level defence dialogues such as Monday's round in Wellington.

The roadmap commits both governments to implement the 2025 India-New Zealand Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation and to keep up structured engagement at the Defence Ministry and Service levels.

On the maritime side, it calls for a Maritime Cooperation Arrangement, an Implementing Arrangement on Hydrography and Nautical Cartography, and a Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement, along with bilateral naval activities under that Cooperation Arrangement. India has leaned on multinational platforms to build this kind of maritime familiarity elsewhere too, including through its RIMPAC 2026 sea phase participation.

A separate track for maritime security and counter-terrorism

Two other mechanisms run alongside the Defence Strategic Dialogue rather than through it. The roadmap calls for an annual Maritime Security Dialogue, led by India's Ministry of External Affairs and New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade under the Maritime Security pillar of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, and separately for operationalising a Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism. Monday's talks were the Ministry to Ministry track, distinct from both.

New Zealand's widening Indo-Pacific engagement

New Zealand has been broadening its own defence contacts across the region through this period. Defence Minister Chris Penk met India's Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue 2026 in Singapore, where the two sides discussed strengthening bilateral defence ties, enhancing maritime cooperation and advancing information-sharing mechanisms, themes that carried through to Wellington on Monday.

A release from the Ministry of Defence the following day set out more of what happened on the sidelines. The visiting Indian delegation held separate meetings with New Zealand's Vice Chief of Defence Force, the Commander of Joint Forces New Zealand, and the Deputy Secretary for Capability Delivery at the New Zealand Ministry of Defence, covering capital procurement and how the two sides' operational frameworks line up with each other. Both countries also reaffirmed their commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, and agreed to keep the momentum going through regular high-level and ministerial exchanges.

Where the relationship goes from here

Both capitals have set out the mechanics for the coming years, from an annual Maritime Security Dialogue to structured Service-level exchanges. India has followed a broadly similar template with other Indo-Pacific partners, including the maritime roadmap attached to the India Australia defence declaration signed in Melbourne. Where the India NZ defence dialogue goes next will depend on how quickly those working-level meetings follow Monday's round in Wellington.