Vanushi Walters sees India free trade deal success hinging on first three years

Labour foreign affairs spokesperson Vanushi Walters believes the success of New Zealand's free trade deal with India will come down to efforts made at home and abroad over the next three years.

Walters, a Sri Lankan New Zealander and former human rights lawyer, was part of discussions on the India trade deal from the opposition benches.

"My strong view is that the success of that agreement depends on the first three years ... to make sure we have an appropriately set up MFAT team on the ground [in India] and that we are engaging the Indian diaspora here to help us leverage what can be an absolutely fantastic agreement," Walters said.

Walters said the deal offered substantial gains for New Zealand exporters, but it also created legal and commercial risk.

"I did look at the promotion clause of the FTA ... with a fine-tooth comb to understand what our obligations are there," she said, referring to a provision in the deal that commits New Zealand to increasing private sector investment into India by $34 billion over the next 15 years.

"I'm happy that it's a promotion clause but ... the scale of it is considerable.

"There is risk to our exporters who want to establish themselves within the Indian market that, at 15 years, it is very much a unilateral decision as to whether India believes we've achieved that promotion clause or not."

Walters has been a Labour list MP since May 2025, having previously served as the electorate MP for Upper Harbour from 2020 to 2023.

She is Labour's candidate for the newly formed Waitākere electorate this year.

As Labour's foreign affairs spokesperson and shadow attorney general, Walters is a leading candidate to become New Zealand's next foreign minister should the election bring a change of government.

Holding the foreign affairs portfolio would be incredibly symbolic in terms of senior Asian representation in office, but it's not a given even if Labour is able to form a government, as coalition agreements could ultimately determine who gets what seat in Cabinet.

Two Asian New Zealanders - Pansy Wong and Priyanca Radhakrishnan - have previously held Cabinet roles.

Wong held ethnic and women's affairs portfolios, while Radhakrishnan held portfolios relating to ethnic communities and disability issues.

Walters says she is aware of the responsibilities associated with holding the foreign affairs portfolio as someone of Sri Lankan heritage.

"It's a huge privilege and responsibility to hold the [foreign affairs] portfolio, something I take very seriously," Walters said.

"While it's up to the leader to decide where the role sits [after the election], it's certainly one I would like to hold," she said.

"I do see and hear from community members that it means a lot to have me in the role," she said.

"There is a desire in our communities to see political leadership across different portfolios … [and be given] a seat around the table … not only in portfolios that directly affect the ethnic communities but some broader ones as well."

Early years

Walters was 6 years old when her family moved to New Zealand in 1987, having left Sri Lanka and spending some time in Zambia.

While she always felt like a typical Kiwi kid, Walters recounted a "jarring" experience with racism she had as a child, noting how it shaped her approach to life based on context and empathy.

"I was walking to my mother's office after school one day," she said.

"I would have been very young, 6 or 7 ... somewhere in that range. I remember being followed by a Pākehā man in a suit who said, 'Go back to your country, you don't belong here'.

"He repeatedly followed me for a while. It was quite jarring.

"I told my mother [later that day] and what she said always stuck with me.

"She took a breath and said, 'That poor man, just think about the life that he's had, that he would speak to a small child that way'."

Walters described a previous Labour-led government's decision to elevate the Office of Ethnic Communities from an office to a ministry as a "significant achievement".

She was an advocate for the Ethnic Diversity Fund, which she said helped communities celebrate and express their cultures while building stronger connections with mainstream New Zealand.

Walters believed social cohesion and racism should be addressed through lived experience, community participation and attention to issues such as bullying in schools instead of relying on legislative change.

Foreign perspective

Walters highlighted the broad historical consensus among political parties on both sides of the aisle on trade, security and defence.

However, she also noted times when parties butted heads on certain issues, referencing historical moments such as the contentious Springbok tours of the 1970s, the nuclear-free movement of the '80s and the decision to refuse sending troops to Iraq.

Walters said she had a lot of respect for Winston Peters in his role as foreign minister in the most recent parliamentary term.

"I have respect for him in terms of some of the work he has done … including, I would say, in the first half of this term, where he has done a lot in the Pacific and he has developed relationships.

"He has travelled extensively and ensured that we're maintaining our relationships.

"And he's done a lot of good work in terms of protecting the overall budget of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade at a very critical time, including the aid budget.

"So, there is a lot of good he has done."

However, she also pointed to times when Peters appeared to clash with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on some international issues.

"At the start of the term, there have been times when [Peters] has called out human rights issues, including in relation to Gaza.

"But that hasn't been consistent. We've seen this very messy foreign policy where we clearly have disagreement between the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs on some issues and silence from New Zealand on critical issues."

(A spokesperson for Peters said the minister had conducted his portfolio in accordance with the New Zealand government's foreign policy.)

Walters claimed the coalition government had appeared to move New Zealand closer to alignment with the United States and away from an independent position on foreign policy.

She pointed to New Zealand's failure to take stronger positions on Palestinian statehood and sanctions against Israel as examples of this.

(Peters' spokesperson rejected such characterisations on Palestinian statehood, adding that New Zealand had a clear and consistent track record of taking strong sanctions against Israel.)

Broadly speaking, Walters believes the prime minister is jointly responsible for foreign policy alongside the minister holding the portfolio.

"These are decisions about New Zealand's reputation," she said.

"Our trade hangs tightly onto the foreign policy positions we take. Let's not forget that one in four jobs is directly connected to our exports."