Singapore visit will add vigour to bilateral ties: PM Modi

Singapore, Sep 5 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hailed the progress made in bilateral cooperation in a multitude of forward-looking areas as he wrapped up his two-day visit to Singapore. 

"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 leaving for India.

Prime Minister Modi was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Parliament House on Thursday, held meetings with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong besides engaging separately with Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

He also visited AEM, a leading Singaporean company in semiconductor and electronics sector, addressed the India-Singapore business roundtable meeting and interacted with interns from Odisha's World Skill Center who are visiting Singapore and interns from Singapore who have been to India as a part of the CII-Enterprise Singapore India Ready Talent Programme.

"Singapore and India share a deep and enduring friendship, built on strong economic and people-to-people ties. Had a productive meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Parliament House. We've set out a forward-looking agenda for the next phase of our bilateral relations. This includes closer cooperation in areas like sustainability, advanced manufacturing, digital technologies and connectivity. We're also upgrading the Singapore-India Strategic Partnership to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership," said Singapore PM Lawrence Wong. 

During their meeting, Singapore President Tharman and Prime Minister Modi reaffirmed the longstanding friendship between both countries as they discussed India's potential as a leading centre of growth over the next decade, driven by both social and digital investments across the wide span of its population, as well as its new economic linkages.

"They also discussed the potential for India and ASEAN to complement each other's growth and build stronger supply chain linkages. They looked forward to celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations between Singapore and India in 2025, which is a significant milestone," stated Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Together, PM Modi and his Singaporean counterpart witnessed the exchange of four government-to-government Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) in the areas of digital cooperation, education and skills development, health and medicine, and semiconductor ecosystem cooperation. 

"The Prime Ministers discussed potential collaboration in new and innovative areas, including cross border electricity trade and green ammonia supply chains, a joint flagship programme for skills training, enhancing cross-border data flows via the Gujarat International Finance and Tec-City (GIFT City), and cooperation in developing industrial parks in India," said the country's Foreign Ministry. 

The statement added that Emeritus Senior Minister Goh and Prime Minister Modi reaffirmed the close friendship and historical ties between Singapore and India at their meeting.

"They discussed ways to build on this strong foundation to strengthen people-to-people ties and exchanges. They also discussed how India could power the next wave of Asian growth," it mentioned.

During his visit to the AEM, PM Modi interacted with Singapore's semiconductor ecosystem players. 

He was briefed about AEM's role in the global semiconductor value chain, its operations and plans for India. Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association also gave a briefing on the development of the semiconductor ecosystem in Singapore and opportunities for collaboration with India. Representatives of several other Singaporean companies from this sector were also present.

"The Prime Minister invited the Singaporean semiconductor companies to participate in the SEMICON India exhibition to be held in Greater Noida on 11-13 September 2024. Given our efforts to develop the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in India and Singapore’s strengths in this sector, both sides have decided to expand bilateral cooperation," mentioned the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Prime Minister Modi had arrived in Singapore from Brunei on Wednesday and met PM Lawrence Wong at the historic Sri Temasek bungalow - the official residence of the Singaporean Prime Minister.

--IANS

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