PM Lawrence Wong at the Joint Press Conference with Indian PM Narendra Modi (Sep 2025)

Your Excellency Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Excellencies
Ladies and gentlemen

Thank you, Prime Minister Modi, for the warm and gracious hospitality extended to me and my delegation. 10 years ago, I joined then-President Tony Tan on his State Visit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Singapore and India. Today, 10 years later, I am glad to be back on my first Official Visit as Prime Minister and to celebrate 60 years of close and enduring friendship between our two countries.

Over this past decade, India has made remarkable advances under Prime Minister Modi's leadership. India is now the fourth largest economy in the world with a dynamism and influence felt far beyond its borders. Our bilateral relationship has grown in tandem; Singapore is the largest foreign investor in India, accounting for around the quarter of India's foreign direct investment inflows, and our cooperation now spans a wide and diverse range of fields.

Last year, PM Modi and I agreed to elevate relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, or a CSP. This morning, we had fruitful discussions on how we can take this CSP forward. Prime Minister has highlighted quite a number of areas, and I will reiterate a few of them.

First, Singapore will continue to support India's skills development journey. We are honoured to accept India's invitation to be a global partner for the National Centre of Excellence in Chennai, which will focus on advanced manufacturing. We will also collaborate with India to set up state-level skill centres to meet industry needs in sectors like aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul and semiconductors.

Second, we will expand cooperation in manufacturing and industrial development. Singapore companies are keen to develop sustainable industrial parks in India to support India's manufacturing ambitions. At the same time, we will deepen collaboration in semiconductors, not just in skills training, but also in R&D, supply chains and logistics, and these efforts will generate new growth opportunities for both our countries.

Third, we will strengthen connectivity across the air, sea and digital domains. This morning, we exchanged an MOU on cooperation in training, research and development in civil aviation. This will support the growth of our aviation sectors, facilitate trade and tourism and create more commercial opportunities. On the maritime side, we just launched phase two of PSA's Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal in Navi Mumbai, which will become India's largest standalone container terminal. And beyond physical links, we are also enhancing digital connectivity between our financial systems. Our central banks have exchanged an MOU on digital asset innovation, and we are discussing ways to further enhance cross border data flows and capital market linkages, including through regulatory sandboxes that would allow us to testbed new innovations.

Fourth, we will expand cooperation in frontier areas like space. To date, more than 20 Singapore-made satellites have been launched by India. Through the MOU on promoting collaboration in the space sector, we will broaden this partnership and push the boundaries of what we can achieve together.

Finally, Prime Minister Modi and I reaffirmed that people-to-people ties remain the bedrock of our relationship. We agreed to enhance exchanges, including through closer civil service cooperation. All of these initiatives reflect the breadth and depth of our CSP. And to guide our efforts, PM Modi and I have also agreed on a roadmap - an ambitious and detailed roadmap to chart the next phase of our relationship.

In a world marked by great uncertainty and turbulence, the partnership between India and Singapore becomes even more important because this is a partnership rooted in shared values, mutual respect and a deep reservoir of trust. We can draw strength from our shared history and the friendship and trust between our peoples. And together, we can strengthen resilience, seize new opportunities and contribute to stability and growth in our region and beyond. So, I look forward to working hand-in-hand with Prime Minister Modi to bring the Singapore-India partnership to even greater heights in the years ahead. Thank you very much.