NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay an official visit to Singapore on September 4-5, to further strengthen bilateral ties between the two nations.
PM Modi’s visit to Singapore comes a fortnight after the high-level roundtable between top ministers of both countries.
“Ties between India and Singapore are poised to take-off to an entirely new level of cooperation,” the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to the island nation.
PM Modi’s visit to Singapore comes after six years, said Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, Jaideep Mazumdar at a special briefing. India and Singapore are looking to significantly enhance their cooperation in the semiconductor sector, he added.
The visit aims to build upon “new anchors” of partnership identified under the India-Singapore ministerial roundtable framework. The relation between the two countries is poised for an even bigger take-off, the MEA said Monday ahead of PM Modi’s visit to the island nation at the invitation of his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong.
PM Modi’s 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,” Mazumdar 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 that 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 participated in the recently held second India-Singapore ministerial roundtable.
During the roundtable, the ministers from both sides discussed “new thrust areas that we can identify in futuristic areas of cooperation”, Mazumdar 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,” he added.
Singapore is India’s largest trade partner in the ASEAN bloc and the country is a leading source of foreign direct investment.
It is India’s sixth largest trade partner worldwide and 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 semiconductors,” the top MEA official said.“India-Singapore relations are poised for an even bigger takeoff, 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 and semiconductors. These are areas where we have great complementarities,” said Mazumdar.
He said that he could visualise the relationship between the two sides taking off to the next stage. For Singapore, India presents tremendous opportunities and for India, Singapore presents many options, whether it is value chain, digital technology, and semiconductors, he added.
“The visit will also take place in light of our 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations which we are celebrating in 2025, and the 10th year of our strategic partnership with Singapore,” he added.
Prior to his visit to Singapore, PM Modi will visit Brunei on September 3-4 at the invitation of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassamal Bolkiah to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in all sectors.
Secretary (East), MEA said India and Brunei are working towards setting up a “joint working group in defence”.
Modi’s visit to Brunei will be the first bilateral visit of an Indian prime minister to that country. It will also mark 40 years of diplomatic ties between India and Brunei.
“Brunei is an important partner in India’s ‘Act East’ Policy and its vision for the Indo-Pacific. And, as we mark a decade of our ‘Act East’ policy, the visit assumes additional significance,” the MEA official said.
Brunei had been “our country coordinator in ASEAN” from 2012-2015, and played a key role in “our further engagement with ASEAN and continues to do so today”.
The visit will further strengthen India’s 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 earlier.
“We have received a valuable contribution from Brunei in our space programme. We have three MoUs with Brunei in this area. We have established a telemetry tracking and command station in Brunei in 2000 and this tracks and monitors all our eastward launches of satellites and launch vehicles,” Mazumdar said.
Defence is another important pillar in the cooperation where two sides are still in discussion for setting up a joint working group, he added.
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