Building on “new anchors” of partnership identified under the India-Singapore ministerial roundtable framework, the relations between the two countries is poised for an even bigger take-off, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Singapore. Prime Minister Modi is slated to visit Singapore on September 4-5 at the invitation of his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong. Prior to that he is scheduled to visit Brunei on September 3-4 which seeks to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in all existing sectors. Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, Jaideep Mazumdar, at a media briefing here said India and Brunei are working towards setting up a “joint working group in defence”. Mazumdar said Prime Minister Modi is visiting Singapore after nearly six years. His last visit to Singapore was in his first term. And an early visit on his third term is something that has been “welcomed by the Singaporean side”. “Also, this comes at a time when a new leader is in Singapore and this is an opportune time to set the stage for the next stage of our vibrant bilateral relations,” he said. The secretary (East) said India-Singapore ties have “evolved” and there is a “dynamic strategic partnership” encompassing various areas from shared history and people-to-people ties which form an important link between the two countries. “Our trade and investment flows have shown a steady growth, we have a robust defence cooperation and growing exchanges in culture and education. We have identified new anchors of our partnership under the India-Singapore ministerial roundtable framework,” he said.
Four Indian ministers had participated in the recently-held second India-Singapore ministerial roundtable. During the roundtable, the ministers from both sides sat down and discussed “new thrust areas that we can identify in futuristic areas of cooperation”, he said. “A number of new, forward-looking futuristic areas of cooperation were identified in digitisation, sustainability skill, health, advance manufacturing and connectivity, and we are likely to exchange a number of MoUs during the forthcoming visit of the Prime Minister,” Mazumdar added. Singapore is India’s largest trade partner in ASEAN and the country is a leading source of foreign direct investment. Singapore is India’ sixth largest trade partner worldwide and it was the largest source of FDI during the last financial year valued at USD 11.77 billion, he said. “We also expect the visit (to Singapore) to give thrust to the cooperation in the field of semiconductor,” the top official of the MEA said. “India-Singapore relations are poised for an even bigger take off, than what it has been in the last 10-15 years or so. That is because, we have gone to the next level of identifying areas of bilateral cooperation whether it be in food security, renewables, green hydrogen, semi-conductors. These are areas where we have great complementarities,” said Mazumdar.
The bureaucrat said that he could see the relationship between the two sides taking off to the next stage. For Singapore, India presets tremendous opportunities and for India, Singapore presents with many options, whether it is value chain, digital technology and semiconductors, he added. There will be an interaction with the CEOs and other business leaders in Singapore during Prime Minister Modi’s visit.”The visit will also take place in light of our 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations which we are celebrating in 2025, and the tenth year of our strategic partnership with Singapore,” he added. Modi’s visit to Brunei will be the first bilateral visit of an Indian prime minister to that country. This visit will also mark 40 years of the establishment of the diplomatic ties between India and Brunei. Prime Minister Modi at the invitation of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah is slated to visit Brunei Darussalam during September 3-4. Brunei is an important partner in India’s ‘Act East’ Policy and its vision of Indo-Pacific. The visit will further strengthen our cooperation with Brunei in all existing sectors, including defence cooperation, trade and investment, energy, space technology, health cooperation, capacity building, culture as well as people-to-people exchanges and explore avenues for cooperation in newer sectors, the MEA said.
