Forty years later, July 4 -- When Rajiv Gandhi visited Auckland in 1986, New Zealand and India were two countries trading largely in wool and diplomatic goodwill. The bilateral relationship was a rounding error in the foreign-policy priorities of either nation. The Indian diaspora in New Zealand numbered a few thousand. The Indo-Pacific, as a coherent strategic frame, had not yet been invented.

the first by an Indian prime minister since that 1986 stop. The architecture around this trip is different in every meaningful way.

The visit is the third leg of a six-day Indo-Pacific tour that takes Modi from Jakarta to Melbourne before landing in Auckland. In Indonesia, he will meet President Prabowo Subianto and visit the Prambanan Temple at ...