Prime Minister Modi's visit will take place in the 10th year of the India-Singapore Strategic Partnership
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to Singapore will be important for trade and investment, a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Monday (September 2, 2024).
 
Addressing a special media briefing on the visit scheduled for September 4-5, 2024, MEA Secretary (East) Jaideep Mazumdar also said this was "an opportune time to set the stage for India-Singapore's vibrant bilateral relations for the next stage of India-Singapore bilateral relations.
 
“From the point of trade and investment also, PM's visit to Singapore is significant. Singapore is India's largest trade partner in ASEAN. It is a leading source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the last financial year. Singapore is India's sixth largest trade partner worldwide," Mazumdar said.
 
Mazumdar also referred to "large" investments from Singapore. "Since 2000 till now, we have an accumulative FDI of USD 160 billion dollars. There will be an interaction with business leaders during the PM's visit. This will be an important element of the visit as the Prime Minister will address the CEOs in his visit, where they will hear India's growth story first hand," he pointed out.
 
Several Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) are expected to be signed during Prime Minister Modi's visit which follows the productive India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable held last month. 

Mazumdar pointed out that during the Roundtable, 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.
 
The visit will be Prime Minister Modi's second to Singapore - he first visited Singapore during his first term as Prime Minister - and it comes at the invitation of his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong.
 
A Dynamic Strategic Partnership 
India and Singapore celebrate 60 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2025. Prime Minister Modi's visit is significant as it will take place in the 10th year of the India-Singapore Strategic Partnership.
 
"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," Mazumdar said.
 
"Our trade and investment flow have shown a steady growth. We have 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 added.