Concluding his two-day visit to Singapore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday highlighted the progress of the country's bilateral cooperation in various forward-looking areas.
"My visit to Singapore has been a very fruitful one. It will certainly add vigour to bilateral ties and benefit the people of our nations. I thank the government and people of Singapore for their warmth," PM Modi posted on X before departing for India.
PM Modi had been accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Parliament House on Thursday, and subsequently called upon President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong, apart from Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.
He also visited AEM, a Singaporean company which is at the forefront in the semiconductor and electronics sector. During his address to the India-Singapore business roundtable and interaction with Odisha's World Skill Center interns presently in Singapore and with Singaporean interns who visited India under the CII-Enterprise Singapore India Ready Talent Programme.
"Singapore and India enjoy a deep and abiding friendship, underpinned by strong economic and people-to-people linkages. Had a productive meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Parliament House. We have outlined a forward-looking agenda for the next phase of our bilateral relationship. This includes closer collaboration in areas such as sustainability, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies, and connectivity. We are also elevating the Singapore-India Strategic Partnership to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership," said Singapore PM Lawrence Wong.
During the discussion, Singapore President Tharman and Prime Minister Modi assured that the friendship between the two countries would be long-standing, identifying India's growth potential in the next decade underpinned by the country's investments in social and digital sectors, with the addition of new economic linkages.
"They also discussed how India and ASEAN can be complementary to each other's growth, with stronger linkages in supply chains. They looked forward to celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations between Singapore and India in 2025-a milestone year," said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Both Prime Ministers witnessed the exchange of four Government-to-Government MoUs in areas of digital cooperation, education and skills development, health and medicine, and the semiconductor ecosystem.
The Prime Ministers discussed possible collaboration in new and emerging areas such as cross-border electricity trade and green ammonia supply chains, a joint flagship program for skills training, increasing cross-border data flows through the GIFT City, and industrial parks development in India, said Singapores' Foreign Ministry.
The meeting between Emeritus Senior Minister Goh and Prime Minister Modi also reaffirmed the historical ties between Singapore and India, with discussions on strengthening people-to-people exchanges and how India could contribute to the next wave of Asian growth.
At AEM, PM Modi interacted with the key players in the semiconductor ecosystem of Singapore. He was briefed on the role of AEM within the global semiconductor value chain and its future plans pertaining to India. The Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association also briefed him on the development of the sector and possible collaborations with India. The other representatives were from other major Singaporean semiconductor companies.
"The Prime Minister invited the semiconductor companies of Singapore to participate in the SEMICON India exhibition to be held in Greater Noida on 11-13 September 2024. In the context of our efforts to develop the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in India and Singapore's strengths in this sector, both sides decided to expand the bilateral cooperation," the MEA said.
PM Modi, who arrived from Brunei and landed in Singapore on Wednesday, met PM Lawrence Wong at the historic Sri Temasek bungalow which is the official residence-cum-office of the Singaporean Prime Minister.
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