PM's Singapore Visit To Take Ties To "Entirely New Level": Foreign Ministry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on an official visit to Singapore on September 4, 5 to further strengthen bilateral ties between the two nations. The prime minister's visit 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 at the special briefing about the Prime Minister's visit.

Prime Minister Modi's visit to Singapore comes after six years, said Secretary East, Ministry of External Affairs, Jaideep Mazumdar. India and Singapore are looking to significantly enhance their cooperation in the semiconductor sector, he added.

He also said that the PM's visit to Singapore is "important for trade and investment".

Singapore is India's largest trade partner in ASEAN. It is also a leading source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the last financial year with an investment of $11.77 billion in 2023 alone," he said, adding that Singapore is India's sixth largest trade partner worldwide.

During his two-day visit, Prime Minister Modi will also address CEOs, he said.

"Investments have also been very large. Since 2000 till now, we have an accumulative FDI of USD 160 billion dollars. There will be an interaction with business leaders in the PM's visit. This will be an important element of the visit as Prime Minister will address the CEOs in his visit, where they will hear India's growth story first hand," Mr Mazumdar said.

"His [PM Modi's] first visit to Singapore was in his first term as the Prime Minister. This visit is of great significance as it's his visit early in his term, and also as the new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has taken oath recently and Singaporeans are excited to welcome PM Modi. This is an opportune time to set the stage for India-Singapore's vibrant bilateral relations for the next stage of India-Singapore bilateral relations. Our ties have evolved and we have a dynamic strategic partnership encompassing diverse areas from our shared history and people-to-people ties, which form an important link between us," he added.

Speaking about the special roundtable framework shared by the two nations, he said "We have identified new anchors of our partnership under the India-Singapore ministerial roundtable framework. The visit will also take place in the light of our 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations which we're celebrating in 2025 and 10th year of our strategic partnership with Singapore."

"During the recently concluded India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable, which is a unique forum between ministers on both sides on diverse areas, a number of new forward-looking futuristic areas were identified in digitization, skill, sustainability, health, advanced manufacturing and connectivity. We are likely to exchange a number of MoUs in these areas in the forthcoming visit of the PM," he said.