Singapore visit expected to mark new era of bilateral agreements for India's Modi.

• India's top source of foreign direct investment and sixth-largest trading partner is Singapore.
• Amitendu Palit of the Institute of South Asian Studies stated that there will be additional steps announced in the areas of mutual collaboration, with many of them likely to be in the fields of finance, technology, and business. He added that these areas have been crucial to the success of the India-Singapore partnership.
• In the past three months, Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, has traveled to Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Brunei.

This week, Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, will meet Lawrence Wong, his Singapore counterpart, for the first time since he won a third term in office in June.

During his two-day visit, Modi will meet with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

"Anit Mukherjee, a senior lecturer at King's College London, stated that Singapore has consistently been a supportive ally of India in the region and has advocated for partnering with India. According to Mukherjee, India would desire to replicate this successful bilateral partnership with other countries in the region."

India's sixth largest trading partner is Singapore, with a 3.2% share of India's overall trade. In financial year 2024, imports from Singapore totaled $21.2 billion, while exports amounted to $14.4 billion.

India receives the largest amount of foreign direct investments from Asia's financial hub, Singapore, which accounts for almost a quarter of total FDI inflows to the South Asian nation.

Mukherjee stated that after Modi's travels to other continents this year, he intends to emphasize that he is not neglecting Southeast Asia.

This week, India's first prime minister visited Brunei, an oil-rich country, where he met Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

In Bandar Seri Begawan, the High Commission of India's new Chancery premises was inaugurated by Modi, and he also visited the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque.

In the past three months, the Indian prime minister has visited Italy, Russia, Ukraine, and Poland for various events, including the G7 summit.

On the agenda

Since Modi's last visit to Singapore six years ago, there is anticipation that several agreements will be reached between the two countries, particularly in finance and manufacturing.

According to Amitendu Palit, a senior research fellow and research lead of trade and economics at the Institute of South Asian Studies, the India-Singapore relationship is expected to enter a new phase of collaboration that will be both economic and strategic, based on areas of long-term interest.

In the Lion City, four Indian ministers, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar, participated in a ministerial roundtable with Singaporean ministers such as Wong and Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan.

The ministers explored strategies to intensify collaboration in fields such as advanced manufacturing, trade, investment, and digitalization.

After the meeting, Balakrishnan stated that semiconductor manufacturing is a crucial area of concentration.

He stated that although Singapore is small, we have a significant global semiconductor manufacturing capability, and they are closely examining our system's ecosystem.

Any outcomes from the meeting will likely be presented during Modi's visit, as political analysts told CNBC.

Palit stated that further steps for collaboration would be announced in finance, technology, and business, with India-Singapore operations being the cornerstones of these initiatives.

Since 2023, the linkage between Singapore's PayNow and India's Unified Payments Interface has enabled real-time transfer of funds between bank accounts in both countries.

Palit predicted that more schemes like this could be announced, and even if they are not, the first step of that cooperation will be firmly established in the upcoming meeting.

It is unlikely that there will be significant trade-related announcements between the two countries, as he stated.

"Singapore has been a crucial gateway for India into Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia, making it an essential bilateral partner for India's trade."