India, New Zealand friendship will continue to strengthen: Pranab

President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said the friendship between India and New Zealand will continue to strengthen.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said the friendship between India and New Zealand will continue to strengthen.

President Pranab Mukherjee shakes hands with John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand during a signing of agreement on direct flight service between the two countries. (PTI)

“Friendship between two countries will continue to strengthen in the years to come to mutual benefit of our peoples,” President Mukherjee said in a tweet on his visit to New Zealand.

Mukherjee visited the War Memorial Museum at New Zealand’s capital Auckland where he laid a wreath at the Hall of Memories of World War II heroes.

The President also visited the Marshall Islands before his New Zealand sojourn.

“India and Marshall Islands have traditionally enjoyed warm and cordial relations based on goodwill and mutual understanding,” Mukherjee said in the tweet, extending greetings and felicitations to the government and people of the country on the occasion of their Constitution Day.

He also met New Zealand governor General Sir Jerry Mateparae at the Government House.

The aim of the President’s visit to New Zealand is to have India as its core trade, economic, and political partner.

New Zealand supports India’s aspirations for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

People-to-people ties between India and New Zealand have traditionally been close and the number of Indian students in New Zealand has grown exponentially over the last few year to about 23,000.