New Delhi, Sep 1 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold bilateral talks with Singapore PM Lawrence Wong on Thursday, exactly a year after the two had met in Singapore and agreed to elevate the bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
A number of agreements are set to be inked during the visit of the Singapore PM, including in the areas of skill development, finance and digital, civil aviation, space collaboration, and shipping.
The Singapore PM and Mrs. Lawrence Wong will be on a three-day visit to India from tomorrow. On Wednesday, the visiting dignitary will hold an interaction with Indian Industry & Business and will be called on by union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
On Thursday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will call on the Singapore PM in the morning, following which there will be a bilateral meeting with PM Modi at Hyderabad House at noon. This will be followed by the exchange of MOUs & Press Statements. In the evening he will call on President Droupadi Murmu, before his departure.
India and Singapore held the third round of the Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) in August when a Singapore delegation was in India led by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong. He was accompanied by Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo, Minister for Manpower and Minister-in-charge of Energy, and Science and Technology Dr Tan See Leng, and Acting Minister for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Finance Jeffrey Siow.
They had held talks with the Indian delegation which included Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, EAM S Jaishankar, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The six pillars of the ISMR are advanced manufacturing, connectivity, digitalisation, healthcare and medicine, skill development, and sustainability. During the ISMR in New Delhi on August 13, the two sides reviewed the progress of a number of bilateral cooperation initiatives under these pillars.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore is India’s biggest trading partner, with US$34.27 billion (S$43.97 billion) in trade in the last fiscal year. According to reports, Singapore’s total accumulated investments in India are around US$159 billion from 2014 to 2024. It is expected to go up to US$175 billion.
