India’s Modi expected to usher in new era of bilateral agreements in Singapore visit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to meet his Singapore counterpart Lawrence Wong this week marking his first trip to the city-state since he won a historic third term in office in June.

Modi will also be meeting Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong during his two-day visit.

“Singapore has consistently been a friend of India in the region, and has advocated for partnering with India,” Anit Mukherjee, a senior lecturer at King’s College London, told CNBC. “India would want to emulate this exemplary bilateral partnership with other countries in the region.”

The country is India’s sixth largest trading partner, with 3.2% share of India’s overall trade. Imports from Singapore in financial year 2024 amounted to $21.2 billion, while exports totaled $14.4 billion.

Asia’s biggest financial hub is also the largest source of foreign direct investments into India. Cumulative FDI inflows from Singapore to India stood at almost $160 billion from April 2000 to March 2024, amounting to almost a quarter of total FDI inflows to the South Asian nation.

Mukherjee also added that after Modi’s trips to other continents this year, he wants to “drive home the point that he is not ignoring Southeast Asia.”

Earlier this week, the Indian prime minister made his inaugural trip to Brunei where he met Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. Modi is India’s first prime minister that has made a bilateral visit to the oil-rich country.

During his visit, Modi inaugurated the new Chancery premises of the High Commission of India in Brunei and paid a visit to the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque in Bandar Seri Begawan.

The Indian prime minister had also visited Italy for the G7 summit, Russia, Ukraine and Poland in the last three months since his reelection.

It has been nearly six years since Modi visited Singapore, and political watchers are expecting a number of agreements to be signed between the two countries — particularly in finance and manufacturing.

“The India-Singapore relationship has always been stable and strong. It is now expected to move to the next phase of collaboration which will be both an economic and strategic collaboration based on areas of long-term interest,” Amitendu Palit, a senior research fellow and research lead of trade and economics at the Institute of South Asian Studies, told CNBC.

Late last month, four Indian ministers including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar attended a ministerial roundtable in the Lion City with Singapore ministers such as Wong and Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan.

The ministers discussed ways to increase bilateral cooperation in areas like advanced manufacturing, trade, investment and digitalization, among others.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Balakrishnan said that semiconductor manufacturing is an important area of focus.

“They know that although Singapore is very small, we have a disproportionate share of global semiconductor manufacturing capability, and they are carefully studying our system in terms of its ecosystem,” he said.

Political analysts told CNBC that any outcomes from that meeting will likely be presented during Modi’s visit.

“There are going to be some further steps announced in the areas of mutual collaboration. I expect quite a few of them to come in the field of finance, technology and business. They have been the cornerstones of the India-Singapore operation,” said Palit.

For example, the payments linkage between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface since 2023 has allowed people from both countries to send and receive funds between bank accounts in real-time.

“More schemes similar to this could be announced. And even if they are not, the first step of that cooperation will be firmly embedded in the upcoming meeting,” Palit predicted.

He added that there will unlikely be major announcements relating to trade between the two countries.

“The trade relationship is already very stable. Singapore has not just been an important bilateral partner for India trade, but has also acted as a gateway for India into Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia.”