 "After Brunei, PM Modi to visit Singapore: Why ties with the island nation matter to India")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is heading to Singapore today (September 4).
Modi is slated to meet several senior leaders including President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.
The prime minister, who is visiting the country at the invitation of his Singaporean counterpart Wong, will also meet leaders from the business community.
The trip comes ahead of the 60th anniversary of the two nations establishing ties and nearly a decade after they entered into a strategic partnership.
But what do we know about ties between India and Singapore?
Let’s take a closer look:
Diplomatic ties
Singapore was founded as a trading post by the British East India Company.
Sir Stamford Raffles would choose Sinhapura, a tiny island on the tip of the Malay Peninsula, as the place where the company would make its presence felt in the Straits of Malacca.
In 1819, Raffles made a deal with the Sultan of Johore.
Singapore was governed directly by the British Raj for the first five decades of its existence.
Like India, Singapore too inherited its political, legal and administrative systems from the British.
It remained a British colony till 1963 – when it became one of 14 states to join Malaysia.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsHowever, Singapore would soon split from Malaysia and gain its independence on August 9, 1965.
India would establish ties with the new country almost immediately.
However, relations would only be elevated to a Strategic Partnership during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Singapore in 2015.
The countries have also seen a number of high-level trips with Modi visiting Singapore again in 2018 and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar making visits in in November 2021, October 2023 and March 2024.
Meanwhile, then prime minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong visited India in October 2016 and 2018 – the former a bilateral visit and the latter to participate in the Republic Day Celebrations.
Lee also visited New Delhi in September 2023 to attend G20 Leaders’ Summit
Trade and FDI
Singapore is India’s largest trade partner in the ASEAN.
It is India’s sixth largest trading partner worldwide and accounts for 3.2 per cent of India’s overall trade.
After the two countries signed the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) in 2005, trade has increased from $6.7 billion that year to $35.6 billion in 2022-23.
Overall trade has risen 18.2 per cent from 2021-2022.
India’s imports from Singapore were at $21.2 billion in the 2023-2024 financial year.
That number was at $23.6 billion in the 2022-2023 financial year.
India’s exports to Singapore totalled $14.4 billion in 2023-2024.
That figure was at $12 billion in the 2022-2023 financial year – a rise of 20.2 per cent.
Singapore is India’s leading source of foreign direct investment (FDI) at $11.77 billion.
Singapore’s cumulative FDI inflow into India stands at $159.94 billion since April 2000.
That comprises 24 per cent of India’s total FDI inflow.
India’s cumulative outward FDI to Singapore stands at $90.578 billion from January 2008.
India has around 9,000 companies registered in Singapore including six Public Sector Undertakings and nine banks.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) also have offices in Singapore.
Over 440 companies from Singapore are registered in India including the Development Bank of Singapore and United Overseas Bank).
The Enterprise Singapore (ES), Economic Development Board (EDB) and Singapore Tourism Board all have offices in India.
Finance, Science and Technology
Singapore is the first country to integrate India’s UPI for cross-border payments.
India and Singapore also have other initiatives including ONDC - Proxtera Connectivity (making Proxtera first international buyer app connected to ONDC), GIFT Connect (collaboration between the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to create a unified liquidity pool for NIFTY products in GIFT City), Trade Trust (initiative to enable interoperable electronic Bills of Lading (eBLs) for cross-border trade finance transactions).
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also launched a number of Singapore’s satellites into space.
These include Singapore’s first indigenous built micro-satellite in 2011, two others in 2016, six in 2015 and nine in 2023.
Indian diaspora in Singapore
There are around 3.5 lakh ethnic Indians in Singapore.
They comprise around 9.1 per cent of the population.
Another 3.5 lakh Indian citizens – around 21 per cent of the populace – work in financial services, IT, construction and marine sectors or are students.
Singapore has the highest concentration of IIT and IIM alumni in any one city outside India.
Singapore has around 1 lakh Indian migrant workers.
Tamil is one of the four official languages of Singapore.
Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi are also taught in schools.
What do experts say?
A piece in the New Indian Express noted that the two nations have seen their relations go through several ups and downs.
The article noted that in 1965, fresh off independence, then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew summoned then Commissioner of India Thomas Abraham to ask for help in Singapore building up its armed forces.
However, New Delhi declined to do so – ostensibly out of concern for alienating Malaysia.
“Had Lee’s request been accepted, the first Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force would have been Indians. New Delhi was lukewarm and Lee turned to Israel for help,” the piece noted.
The piece argued noted how defence relations are expanding between the countries and the Singapore Air Force is being trained at Barrackpore Air Base.
It also noted Singapore’s part in the formation of Nalanda University.
Singapore-based political scientist Kanti Bajpai told The Print that Modi’s trip came amid a resurgence of interest in India from Singapore’s government.
“Singapore is thinking of India seriously once again after a lull over the last 4-5 years. This lull was marked by Covid-19, the shutting down of the Amaravati capital city startup project in Andhra Pradesh, India’s decision to pull out of RCEP which was disappointing to Singapore, among other factors,” Bajpai told the outlet.
Though the prime minister said he looked forward to his discussions to “deepen our Strategic Partnership with Singapore” – particularly in new and emerging areas of advanced manufacturing, digitalisation, and sustainable development – sources told the outlet that further deepening ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership was “unlikely.”
“Both countries are important partners in our Act East Policy and the Indo-Pacific Vision. I am confident that my visits would further strengthen our partnership with Brunei, Singapore and the larger ASEAN region,” Modi had said.
With inputs from agencies
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