Labour leader Chris Hipkins is accusing Prime Minister Christopher Luxon of reversing a long-held foreign policy during his current trip to India to help secure a free trade agreement between the nations.
"It seems our foreign policy is up for grabs at the moment," he said, citing Luxon's seeming endorsement of India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) despite New Zealand's previous long-standing objection.
"I think these are bad moves for New Zealand. We should continue to be independent and principled in our foreign policy."
Hipkins made the comments on RNZ's Morning Report programme today regarding a section of the joint statement issued after Luxon met with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.
It included a reference to India's hopes of joining the NSG.
"Both leaders acknowledged the importance of upholding the global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime and acknowledged the value of India joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group in context of predictability for India's clean energy goals and its non-proliferation credentials," the statement said, as reported by StratNews Global.
India is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, one of the pre-requisites of joining the NSG.
New Zealand has objected to India joining the NSG in the past, due to concern that access to those nuclear materials could be used for nuclear weapons.
"So it's a principled stance New Zealand has taken. Christopher Luxon signed that away yesterday," Hipkins said.
"He basically signed a memo that basically said that we supported India joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group despite the fact that India has consistently refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty."
It was "a reversal" of previous policy and undermined New Zealand's nuclear-free stance, Hipkins said.
But a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters denied there had been change.
"New Zealand's position on the Nuclear Suppliers Group has not changed, contrary to what Mr Hipkins claims. The joint statements released by the New Zealand and Indian Prime Ministers in 2016 and 2025 make that abundantly clear," he said.
"If Mr Hipkins or his predecessor Jacinda Ardern had travelled to India during their six years as Prime Minister, the Labour Party might understand this issue and the New Zealand-India relationship a bit better."
On a possible free trade deal with India, Hipkins said he did not want to see it achieved at the expense of "selling out large parts of New Zealand's economy and potentially New Zealand's principled foreign policy stance" which would not be good for this country.
"The endorsement of India joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group is a real departure."
Comment has been requested from the Prime Minister's office.
