• India and Singapore elevated their ties to a ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’.

• At the invitation of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid an official visit to Singapore on September 4 and 5. 

• It was the fifth visit of PM Modi to Singapore.

• The leaders reviewed and expressed satisfaction over the progress in the bilateral relationship, which has developed into an all-round cooperation, including in the areas of political, economic, security, technology, education, people to people and cultural links. 

• India and Singapore will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations next year. Against this backdrop, both Prime Ministers agreed to elevate bilateral relations to a higher level of a ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’, to deepen and broaden bilateral cooperation.

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

• 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.

• Both leaders witnessed the exchange of MoUs for cooperation in semiconductors, digital technologies, skill development and healthcare. 

MoU on India-Singapore Semiconductor Ecosystem Partnership

• Both sides exchanged an MoU to partner and cooperate in the field of semiconductors. The MoU aims to support India’s growing semiconductor industry while facilitating Singapore’s ecosystem of semiconductor companies and related supply chains to participate in the fast-growing Indian market. 

• Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will establish a policy dialogue to facilitate discussions, oversee the implementation of the areas of collaboration, and exchange best practices.

• A parallel business-to-business Cooperation Forum will be established and led by Enterprise Singapore and the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) to encourage and catalyse more private sector partnerships between both countries.

• PM Modi visited AEM, a leading Singaporean company in semiconductor and electronics sector. They were briefed about AEM’s role in global semiconductor value chain, its operations and plans for India. Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association gave a briefing on the development of semiconductor ecosystem in Singapore and opportunities for collaboration with India.

India-Singapore Relations

• The close ties between India and Singapore have a history rooted in strong commercial, cultural and people-to-people links across a millennium. 

• The more modern relationship is attributed to Sir Stamford Raffles who, in 1819, established a trading station in Singapore on the route of the Straits of Malacca which later became a crown colony and governed from Kolkata till 1867.

• India was one of the first countries to recognise Singapore in 1965.

• India-Singapore relations are based on shared values and approaches, economic opportunities and convergence of interests on key issues. There are more than 20 regular bilateral mechanisms, dialogues and exercises.

• India-Singapore relations were elevated to ‘Strategic Partnership’ in 2015.

• A new high level Ministerial mechanism called India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) has been established to chart a roadmap to take bilateral relations to a new level.

• Singapore is India’s largest trade partner in ASEAN. It is the leading source of FDI. FDI equity inflows in India from Singapore during 2023-24 stood at $11.774 billion. The cumulative FDI inflows from Singapore to India stood at $159.943 billion (April 2000– March 2024) which is 24 per cent of total FDI inflows in India. 

• Bilateral trade expanded after the conclusion of CECA from $6.7 billion in FY 2004-05 to $35.6 billion in 2023-24.

• Singapore is India’s sixth largest trade partner.

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