New Zealand PM’s hit-wicket

Helen Clark hits a raw nerve before her official visit

Most Indians know of a country called New Zealand only because it is has a reasonably good cricket team, and because John Wright, a former Kiwi skipper, is the Indian team’s current coach. Apart from this little engagement, bilateral relations between India and New Zealand do not amount to much.

So it is rather curious that New Zealand’s Prime Minister Helen Clark made some comments about the Kashmir issue, that were in the least, insensitive to the ears of her Indian hosts. While Clark has achieved a reputation for straight talk at the risk of alienating friends, it is quite uncertain what she expected to achieve when she made those remarks so close to her official visit to India.

When Helen Clark arrives in India carrying such baggage, it is unlikely that bilateral relations between the two countries will progress much beyond another set of cricket tours.

7 thoughts on “New Zealand PM’s hit-wicket”

  1. You reckon NZ keeps doing it because it tries to make itself heard? For all its bleating [pun intended], its nothing but a nation of sheep-sh*$gers, as any Aussie will let you know :). Empty vessels make more noise?

  2. “As a matter of principle, New Zealand wants countries to sign the CTBT. We have a well-known and strong advocacy of nuclear disarmament,” Clark told the Hindustan Times newspaper in an interview ahead of her visit.

    “India will always find New Zealand taking it closer to nuclear disarmament, not further away from it,” she said adding that the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan was a nuclear “flashpoint”.[Reuters]

    Quite presumptuous of Mrs Clark to assume that India would like to be led anywhere by the New Zealanders…unless Clark has been hired to coach the Indian cabinet !

  3. I agree with both the comments above. India should stop concerning itself with minnows like these – mere distractions and entaertainment is all they’ll ever be. Unless one such minnow shared a border with us – think burma, nepal or worst of all – B’desh.

  4. A large number of Indians emigrate to New Zealand. So although I think Mrs. Clarke likes putting her foot in, it is going to be more than just cricket.

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