Singapore’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Vivian Balakrishnan, welcomed Indian Prime Minister Nahendra Modi in a Facebook post on Friday, June 1. Mr. Modi is currently on a 5-day official visit, first to Indonesia, then Malaysia, and then to Singapore for 3 days.
Mr. Modi first paid a visit to Halimah Yacob, the President of Singapore, at the Istana presidential palace. The Indian Prime Minister received a ceremonial welcome and a guard of honour at the palace.
He then met with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for the purpose of forging agreements concerning peace and security in the Indo-Pacitic region as well as naval cooperation, among others topics. The two leaders talked about how to enhance cooperation between the two nations in the areas of technology, innovation, connectivity and financial investments.
Raveesh Kumar, the Official Spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs of India, tweeted “Valuable strategic partner in our Act East Policy! PM @narendramodi & PM Singapore @leehsienloong had delegation-level talks. Discussion focused on a wide range of our bilateral cooperation, specially in trade & investment, connectivity, innovation, technology & strategic issues.”
He also tweeted, “Discussion focused on a wide range of our bilateral cooperation, especially in trade & investment, connectivity, innovation, technology & strategic issues.”
In his speech, Prime Minister Modi emphasized the good relations and cooperation that Singapore and India has enjoyed, and said that he looked forward to more opportunities that would benefit the two nations. “India and Singapore have had a long-term naval cooperation, I welcome the completion of a logistics agreement between the navies of our countries. In the coming times, dealing with cyber security and extremism and terrorism will be important areas of our cooperation. We both have reaffirmed our views on maritime security and have shown our commitment to a ‘Rules Based’ order. We have also agreed on the need to maintain an open, stable and fair international trade regime. We agreed that cybersecurity and terrorism are the key areas of focus. We also agreed for a peaceful, open, and friendly maritime environment in the Indo-Pacific region.”
In the evening, Prime Minster Modi delivered the Keynote Speech before officials from other countries from the Asia-Pacific region at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual forum on security, the first Indian Prime Minister to have done so.