EAM Jaishankar is on a two-day visit to Singapore
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who is on a two-day visit to Singapore on Saturday met with the country’s Minister of Home Affairs and Law, K Shanmugam and exchanged views on further strengthening of bilateral relations between the two nations.

Writing on X, Jaishankar on Saturday said, “Happy to catch up with Minister of Home Affairs & Law K Shanmugam today. Exchanged views on further strengthening of our bilateral relations. Also, on regional and global developments.”

Earlier on Friday, Jaishankar held a comprehensive discussion with his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan on issues related with strategic partnership and global developments.

Posting a text on X, Jaishankar said, “Delighted to meet my good friend Vivian Bala. A comprehensive discussion on our strategic partnership and global developments.”

India and Singapore enjoy a historical relationship which was elevated to a strategic partnership in 2015.

In 2023, both sides had several Ministerial interactions on the sidelines of the G20 held under India’s Presidency, for which Singapore was invited as a guest country.
 
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited New Delhi to participate in the G20 Summit in September this year.
 
On 21 February 2023, the link between India’s UPI and Singapore’s PayNow was officially launched in the presence of Prime Minister Modi and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong, by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, and Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Managing Director, Ravi Menon.
 
The PayNow-UPI linkage will offer cheaper, faster, and safer cross-border retail payments and remittances, for businesses and individuals alike, directly between bank accounts or e-wallets, using mobile phone number, UPI identity, or Virtual Payment Address (VPA).
 
The PayNow-UPI linkage is India’s first cross-border real-time payment systems linkage, and Singapore’s second (first with Thailand’s PromptPay).

On the trade front, Singapore is India’s 8th largest trade partner. In the year 2022-23, bilateral trade reached $35.59 billion registering a growth of 18% over 2021-22, with $12 billion of exports to Singapore (7.5% growth), and $23.59 billion of imports from Singapore (24% growth).
 
On the investment front, FDI equity inflows in India from Singapore during 2021-22 stood at $ 15.87 billion. In 2020-21, despite COVID situation, Singapore was the largest source of FDI into India, with FDI inflows of $17.42 billion as compared to $14.67 billion received in 2019-20.
 
The cumulative FDI inflows from Singapore to India stood at $144.04 billion (April 2000 – December 2022) which is 23% of total FDI inflows in India. Singapore is also amongst the largest sources of External Commercial Borrowings for India and Foreign Portfolio Investment from Singapore has been extremely important for India.
 
Top sectors attracting FDI Equity inflows from Singapore are: services sector, computer software, hardware, trading, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals.
 
The cumulative outward Indian FDI to Singapore stands at $83.46 billion (January 2008 – February 2023). The outward Indian FDI to Singapore stood at $4.18 billion in the financial year 2022-23.