India, Singapore elevate ties to "comprehensive strategic partnership”

Singapore: Singapore and India elevated their relationship as a "comprehensive strategic partnership" and signed four memorandums of understanding (MoUs), one of which focused on semiconductor industry cooperation.

The corporations based in the rich city-state committed to investing over USD 60 billion in the next years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived here from Brunei on a two-day visit, touted Singapore as a model for developing nations and said India wanted to create "several Singapores" of its own during his talks with Premier Lawrence Wong.

"Prime Ministers @narendramodi and @LawrenceWongST held productive talks today. They deliberated on ways to further deepen India-Singapore partnership across key sectors including technology, healthcare, trade, skilling, and more," the prime minister's office said in a post on X.

Later, PM Modi held a roundtable with top business leaders and CEOs in Singapore, where he talked about ways to deepen economic linkages. Highlighting the reforms underway in India, which will encourage investment and innovation, PM Modi invited Singaporean business leaders to look at investment opportunities in India in sectors like aviation, energy, and skill development.

At the roundtable with business leaders, Singapore companies committed an investment of around USD 60 billion (over Rs 5 lakh crore) in the next few years, officials said.

"Collaborative initiatives have been identified in areas such as skilling, digitalisation, mobility, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and AI, healthcare, sustainability and cybersecurity," PM Modi said during his meeting with Lawrence Wong.

Describing Singapore as an "important facilitator" of India's Act East policy, PM Modi said, "Our strategic partnership is completing a decade. Over the past 10 years, our trade has more than doubled. Mutual investment has increased almost threefold to cross USD 150 billion. Singapore was the first country with which we launched the UPI Person-to-Person payment facility." Noting that in the past ten years, 17 satellites of Singapore have been launched from Indian soil, PM Modi said bilateral cooperation has gained momentum from skilling to the defence sector.

"I am pleased that today, we are together elevating our relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership," he said.

Both leaders witnessed the exchange of MoUs for cooperation in semiconductors, digital technologies, skill development and healthcare. These are the outcomes of the deliberations during the two rounds of India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtables held so far.

Prime Minister Modi also announced the setting up of an Invest India office in Singapore, which will be a handholding office for investors in Singapore in various areas identified in the six pillars.

At their talks, both leaders reviewed existing cooperation in the fields of defence and security, maritime domain awareness, education, AI, Fintech, new technology domains, science and technology and knowledge partnership, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

The leaders also exchanged views on important regional and global issues of mutual interest, including India-ASEAN relations and India's vision for the Indo-Pacific.

In a joint statement, the two countries committed to work together to promote peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific region, which would help promote free trade and open markets.

The two leaders "reaffirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, security, stability, safety and freedom of navigation in and overflight above the South China Sea," the joint statement said, in a veiled reference to China, which claims most of the South China Sea, while the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, and Taiwan have counterclaims.

PM Modi also said India's first Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre would soon be inaugurated in Singapore. "The great saint Thiruvalluvar provided guiding thoughts to the world in the most ancient language Tamil. His work, the Thirukkural, was composed nearly 2,000 years ago, yet its ideas remain relevant today," he added.

The two leaders discussed the outcome of the 2nd India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable held in Singapore in August 2024. Their discussion also covered the celebration of the 60th anniversary of bilateral ties in 2025.

The Prime Minister invited Lawrence Wong to visit India, which he accepted.

PM Modi thanked Lawrence Wong for the warm welcome. "This is our first meeting after you assumed the post of premier. Many congratulations to you from my side. I am confident that under the leadership of 4G (the fourth-generation leaders), Singapore will progress even faster," PM Modi said.

"The discussions with my friend, PM Lawrence Wong continued today. Our talks focused on boosting cooperation in areas like skilling, technology, healthcare, AI and more. We both agreed on the need to boost trade relations," PM Modi later said in a post on X.

Lawrence Wong said Singapore and India share a deep and enduring friendship, built on strong economic and people-to-people ties.

"Had a productive meeting with Indian Prime Minister @narendramodi at Parliament House. We've set out a forward-looking agenda for the next phase of our bilateral relations," he posted on X.

"This includes closer cooperation in areas like sustainability, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies and connectivity. We're also upgrading the Singapore-India Strategic Partnership to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership," he said.

"This is timely as we expand our partnership in new, mutually beneficial areas. We also celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations and our Strategic Partnership's 10th anniversary next year," Lawrence Wong said.

Singapore looks forward to strengthening bilateral ties and creating new opportunities for the people of the two nations, he said.

Ahead of the talks with Lawrence Wong, PM Modi received a ceremonial welcome at the Parliament House.

The meeting between the two leaders comes months after Lawrence Wong took over as premier and PM Modi began his third term as prime minister.

PM Modi and Lawrence Wong also visited a leading Singaporean company in the semiconductor and electronics sector and discussed ways for collaboration in this critical industry. This is his fifth visit as prime minister, all prior visits were made in his first term as prime minister.

With PTI inputs