Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to visit India on Jan 14-18

Singapore is India’s top foreign investor, with its investments making up about 24% of total FDI inflows since 2000

Updated on: Jan 13, 2025, 18:41:49 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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NEW DELHI: Cooperation on skilling for the semiconductor industry and vocational training will be in focus during Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s state visit this week, which will mark the beginning of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam will be in India during January 14-18 with a high-level delegation that includes ministers and members of Parliament (X/FAODG)

Tharman, who will be in India during January 14-18 with a high-level delegation that includes ministers and members of Parliament, will be the first Singapore president to travel to the country in ten years. It is also his first visit to India as president of Singapore.

Besides holding talks with President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Tharman will meet external affairs minister S Jaishankar, the external affairs ministry announced on Monday.

He is also expected to meet finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, commerce minister Piyush Goyal, highways minister Nitin Gadkari, railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and health minister JP Nadda.

Tharman will visit Odisha during January 17-18, when two memorandums of understanding (MOUs) will be signed on cooperation in technical and vocational education and training and introduction of semiconductor-related skilling for the chip industry in the state, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

While in Odisha, Tharman will meet chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi and visit a vaccine manufacturing plant of Bharat Biotech and the World Skills Centre set up by Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education Education Services with funding from the Asian Development Bank.

Tharman’s visit is expected to provide further momentum to relations between India and Singapore, which have extensive cooperation based on friendship, trust and mutual respect, the external affairs ministry said. The ties were elevated to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership during Modi’s visit to Singapore last September.

The visit will also mark the beginning of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations, the ministry said.

This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership between Singapore and India, and annual bilateral trade has grown by 2.5 times, from Singapore $20 billion in 2005 to Singapore $51.2 billion in 2022.

Singapore is India’s top foreign investor, with its investments making up about 24% of total FDI inflows since 2000. Indian investment in Singapore has also grown from Singapore $481 million in 2004 to Singapore $25.3 billion in 2022.

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

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