NEW DELHI/SYDNEY (Reuters): Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand next week, the Indian Foreign Ministry said on Friday, as New Delhi seeks to bolster ties in the Asia-Pacific region.
Modi will arrive in Indonesia on Monday and then travel to Australia before ending his trip in New Zealand on July 11, the ministry said.
After Modi's recent visits to Mauritius and Seychelles and the visit of Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to New Delhi this week, the focus has "shifted to the eastern maritime zones of the Indian Ocean and our Act East engagement", said Rudrendra Tandon, a top Indian Foreign Ministry official.
During the visits, Modi is expected to meet leaders of the three countries - Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
In Melbourne, Modi is also expected to meet leaders from top Australian companies, as well as visit the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
India is one of Australia's largest trading partners, with some 1 million Indian-born residents making up Australia's largest overseas population.
The visit to New Zealand comes amid rising anti-Indian sentiment in the country and tensions in New Zealand's ruling coalition caused by a free-trade agreement between the two nations.
"Prime Minister Modi's visit is historic, with this being the first to New Zealand by an Indian Prime Minister in 40 years," New Zealand's Luxon said in a statement on Friday.
New Zealand and India signed a free-trade agreement in April that will eventually remove tariffs on 100% of Indian goods and 95% of New Zealand goods.
(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma in New Delhi and Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Writing by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by YP Rajesh, Aidan Lewis) - Reuters
