EAM Jaishankar meets top Singapore leaders ahead of G20 foreign ministers’ meet

Jaishankar is set to meet his counterparts from China, Russia and the US at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali from July 7-8

Published on: Jul 6, 2022, 14:49:07 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday met members of Singapore’s top leadership, including deputy prime minister Lawrence Wong, and discussed global developments and ways to take the bilateral partnership to the next level.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar (left) with Singapore defence minister Ng Eng Hen. (Twitter Photo)

Jaishankar made a transit halt in Singapore en route to Indonesia to participate in the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali. Singapore’s foreign minister held talks with Jaishankar in New Delhi during a visit last month to participate in a special meeting of the foreign ministers of India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Besides Wong, Jaishankar also met Singapore’s defence minister Ng Eng Hen during the transit halt.

Jaishankar tweeted that he and Wong, who is also the finance minister, had a “good discussion on taking our bilateral partnership to the next level” and exchanged views on the global political and economic situation.

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“India & Singapore are close & long-standing friends, with a substantive relationship across many fields. So it was good to catch up with Indian External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar this morning to discuss areas for bilateral cooperation & broader geopolitical developments,” Wong said in a tweet.

Jaishankar, who earlier served as the high commissioner to Singapore, also tweeted that he always benefited from the “insights and perspectives” of Ng Eng Hen.

“Delighted to have lunch with India Minister of External Affairs @DrSJaishankar. As always, I find pearls of wisdom from our conversations to achieve stability for both our countries and the region,” Ng Eng Hen said in a tweet.

Jaishankar is set to meet his counterparts from China, Russia and the US at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali from July 7-8. This will be the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February that all four foreign ministers will be at the same venue, though there was no confirmation on Wednesday about bilateral meetings between Jaishankar and his three counterparts.

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba will participate in the ministerial meeting virtually as a special invitee. The meeting in Bali is part of the preparations for the summit of leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies, to be hosted by Indonesia in November. India will hold the G20 presidency in 2023.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More