• The year 2025 marks the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Singapore. 

• To commemorate this occasion, President Droupadi Murmu and her Singaporean counterpart Tharman Shanmugaratnam unveiled a joint logo in New Delhi on January 16, 2025.

• Shanmugaratnam is on a State Visit to India from January 14-18. 

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Shanmugaratnam. During this meeting the two leaders extensively reviewed the bilateral relationship and discussed ways to strengthen the ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’.

India-Singapore Bilateral Relations

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

• In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles established a trading station in Singapore on the route of the Straits of Malacca which later became a crown colony and was governed from Kolkata till 1867. The colonial connection is reflected in institutions and practices, usage of English and presence of a large Indian community.

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

• India-Singapore cooperation has deepened and diversified over the years. The bilateral ties are characterised by strengthening political, defence, economic, cultural, educational and people-to-people contacts. 

• 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.

• In September 2024, the relations were elevated to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the visit of PM Modi to Singapore.

• Singapore and India are now on a new trajectory of cooperation after the relations were upgraded to a ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’.

• Both countries share warm and friendly relations, which have provided a firm basis to expanding cooperation in the fields of advanced manufacturing, connectivity, digitilisation, healthcare & medicine, sustainability, and education & skills development.

• Singapore is a key pillar of India’s ‘Act East’ policy. 

• 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 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), among the largest sources of external commercial borrowings and foreign portfolio investment. 

• The bilateral trade expanded after the conclusion of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) from $6.7 billion in FY 2004-05 to $35.6 billion in 2023-24. Singapore is India’s sixth largest trade partner (2023-24) with a share of 3.2 per cent of India’s overall trade.

• India’s imports from Singapore in FY 23-24 were $21.2 billion, and exports to Singapore totaled $14.4 billion.

• In FY 2023-24 Singapore was the largest source of FDI into India. FDI equity inflows in India from Singapore during 2023-24 stood at $11.774 billion.

• In defence sector, there are bilateral exercises for all three services:

Army – Agni Warrior

Navy – SIMBEX

Air Force – Joint Military Training.

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