Asia Insight

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India. In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks with Sapreet Singh, one of only two players of Indian descent to have represented NZ at the highest level of the game.  Website asiamediacentre.org.nz Email us at media@asianz.org.nz Whakawhetai mo te whak...

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India. In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks with Riri Motu, a New Zealand exponent of the traditional Indian game of Kabaddi, often described as a mix of tag and wrestling.   Website asiamediacentre.org.nz Email us at media@asianz.org.nz Whakawhetai...

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's first successful climb of Mount Everest/ Chomolungma in 1953 made mountaineering history, and forged an enduring relationship between New Zealand and Nepal. In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks wit...

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India, recorded as part of new research being released by the Asia New Zealand Foundation. In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks with former New Zealand cricket captain John Wright, who was also the first foreigner to coach the Indian Men's side...

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India. In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks with Black Caps spinner Ajaz Patel, who was born in Mumbai but raised in New Zealand. In 2021 Ajaz shocked the cricket world by taking all ten wickets in an innings - one of the games rarest feats. Ajaz sp...

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India. In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks with cricket commentator Bryan Waddle  Widely celebrated as "the voice of New Zealand cricket," Bryan Waddle has  commentated on more than 250 Test matches and 400 One-Day Internationals. In 2019...

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India. In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks with White Ferns captain Melie Kerr, arguably the greatest female cricketer New Zealand has produced. She's also been instrumental in the rise of the Indian Women's Premier League, playing for th...

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India. In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks with former New Zealand cricketer Dipak Patel, just the second player of Indian heritage to play for the Black Caps.   Website asiamediacentre.org.nz Email us at media@asianz.org.nz Whakawhetai mo te whaka...

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India.  In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks with Ramesh Patel, the first player of Indian decent to represent New Zealand on the hockey field. Patel was a member of the gold medal winning team of 1976, and went on to become CEO of Hockey New Zealan...

Asia Insight : Common Ground is a special series of interviews looking at the enduring sporting connections between New Zealand and India  In this episode sports journalist Stephen Hewson speaks with Selwyn Maister, a member of New Zealand's 1976 Montreal Olympics Gold Medal team and hockey historian.   Website asiamediacentre.org.nz Email us at media@asianz.org.nz Whakawhetai mo te whakarong...

In this special series of Asia Insight, sports journalist Stephen Hewson talks with a range of New Zealand sportspeople about what a century of sport has meant for the connection between Aotearoa and India our two countries. It's a story that has grown much bigger than the games themselves: one of community, camaraderie and collaboration. Join us as we celebrate it. We begin this special seri...

Few scholars have shaped how the West understands South Asia's strategic rivalries the way today's guest has. Sumit Ganguly is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations. He's a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations...

Earlier this month the New Zealand China Council and the Asia New Zealand Foundation hosted Zhen Wu, the Vice President International Business Development China at Magna International on her first visit to New Zealand. Magna is a listed automotive technology company that partners with automakers across the globe, including many of China's emerging EV companies.  Foundation Business Programme...

Malaysian Nicol David is widely considered the greatest squash player of all time  8 time world champion, 5 British Opens titles, the first Asian female squash player to be number one in the world , and 109 consecutive months at number one in the world. Not to mention a string of gold medals at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.  After a stellar career on the court, Nicol David set up the Fou...

In this episode, Asia New Zealand Foundation Arts programme Director Craig Cooper talks to Mark Williams from arts agency CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image, and Cushla Aston, from the Aston Road music industry agency, about their recent experiences observing the arts and music scene in Indonesia.        Website asiamediacentre.org.nz Email us at media@asianz.org.nz Whakawhetai mo te whakarongo .. thanks...

Alan Gepty is currently the Undersecretary for the International Trade Group at the Department of Trade and Industry in Manila, managing trade agencies of the Philippines government, as well as trade policy and trade negotiations across the board.  He was in New Zealand earlier this month for the inaugural meeting of the new Philippines-New Zealand Joint Economic Commission – the JEC - a new body...

Dhruva Jaishankar is executive director of the Observer Research Foundation America and a 2026 senior fellow with the Asia New Zealand Foundation He’s also a non-resident Fellow at the Lowy Institute in Australia, and is the author of Vishwa Shastra: India and the World   ,an excellent introduction to India's international relations due to be published in New Zealand later this year. Dhruva w...

In May 2026 the Asia New Zealand Foundation led its first sports delegation to India. Six New Zealand sports leaders joined Programme Manager Kirsty Sharp on a trip that included Mumbai and Amdavad, to take a closer look at India's sports ecosystem as India prepares to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games. Among the delegates was Erin Roxburgh - researcher, lecturer, and governance practitioner s...

In this episode Lingy Au talks to Shenny Tang, and entrepreneur based in Brunei, who is Head of Growth at Innov8 Labs, Brunei's first digital capability centre - specialising in cybersecurity, AI and emerging technologies.  Shenny was in New Zealand earlier this year participating in the Young Business Leaders Initiative, a week-long exchange programme to learn more about the NZ business envi...

Today we're joined by Professor James Laurenceson, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology in Sydney, one of the sharpest minds working on the economics of the China relationship anywhere in the region.  James has spent years cutting through the noise on trade, investment, and what's become the defining question for governments and businesses a...

Our guests on the podcast today are two leading experts of Asia security issues, in Wellington NZ for the Asia Symposium hosted by the Asia New Zealand Foundation. This episode's a deep dive on Asia politics, and replete with the various associated acronyms. So if you aren't familiar with The IP4, The Quad, or ASEAN and Japan's OSA - a quick Google of the terms will make for a more...

Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic and International studies one of the country’s most high-profile think tanks, known widely as ISIS   Professor Mohd Faiz Abdullah is its Executive Chairman and Chief Executive  His diverse career spans media, law enforecement, education and three decades as a lawyer. He’s also currently an advisor to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibraham.  A small delegation from...

Charlotte Glennie is a name with a rather special place in the New Zealand media history, as the country’s only former foreign correspondent based in Asia.  She’s spent more than two decades in the media, and as well as New Zealand outlets – notably TVNZ , she’s also worked with the BBC and ABC Australia.  She’s just released an autobiography called “Every Second Counts” , running through her life...

Mycotech is an Indonesian startup based in the central Javanese city of Bandung, and since about 2016 its been in the business of mycelium leather, the mushroom based alternative that is taking on the traditional leather goods industry.  One of the company’s founder is Adi Nugroho, who has been in the country recently courtesy of the Asia New Zealand Foundation. We sat down for a chat about the de...

Dr Samir Saran is President of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), India’s premier think tank. ORF puts together the Raisina Dialogue, a global geo-politics conference held in New Delhi annually, attracting analysts, politicians and journalists from around the world. Samir's been back in NZ as a Prime Minister’s Fellow, and we sat down for a chat about India in 2025, the India -Russia rel...