“I have also come to assure you that I am there to carefully hold your hands”, Modi said while addressing at the India-Singapore Economic Convention.
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Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak (left) and China’s Premier Li Keqiang attend an official welcoming ceremony during their visit in Putrajaya, November 23, 2015.
He later left for Singapore on the second and last leg of his four-day visit to southeast Asia.
Notably, Little India which is a precinct of Indian businesses in Singapore was also the witness of the December 8, 2013 riots, the city-state’s worst outbreak of violence in over 40 years.
India and Malaysia today signed three MoUs, including one on cyber security, as part of efforts to strengthen their bilateral strategic partnership.
Talking about security and defence cooperation, Modi said both countries will make it stronger, including for advancing maritime security and strengthening disaster response in the region.
Following this, he met with the Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India and the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) of Singapore also signed an MoU on cooperation to combat illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substance and their precursors. Later, he used official shares with his Singaporean counterpart.
With Mr Modi pushing infrastructure and smart cities as a key plank of his development strategy, urban solutions – a key Singapore strength – has gained salience in the relationship.
The CSP aims to deepen cooperation between Australia and Singapore in trade and economics, foreign affairs, defence and security, as well as people-to-people ties.
According to Swarup, the two prime ministers noted the importance of culture between the two countries and encouraged more exhibitions, exchanges and interactions.
We are trying to harness India’s development potential through policies and our people.
In turn, Modi said he was very pleased with India-Malaysia’s excellent and growing cooperation in traditional medicine including Ayurveda and Siddha. Capacity building, skill upgrading and knowledge development are also identified as areas of cooperation.
The planned 350-kilometre project is expected to link Malaysia and Singapore in 90 minutes and had also attracted interest from Japan and South Korea.
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Later in the day, Prime Minister Modi will also interact with Indian diaspora here.
