Singapore is India’s largest trade partner in ASEAN and the sixth largest trade partner worldwide
Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will pay a State visit to India from January 14-18, 2025. He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including Ministers, Members of Parliament and officials, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said as it announced the visit on Monday (January 13, 2025).

This would be his first visit to India as the President of Singapore. The State Visit will also mark the beginning of the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Singapore.

President Tharman will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhawan on January 16, 2025. During his visit, President Tharman will hold discussions with President Droupadi Murmu, who will also host a banquet in his honour. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet with the President of Singapore while External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and several other Indian dignitaries will call on him. President Tharman will also visit Odisha from January 17-18, 2025.

India and Singapore have extensive cooperation based on a long tradition of friendship, trust and mutual respect. President Tharman’s visit is expected to provide further momentum to bilateral relations, which were elevated to the level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Singapore on September 4-5, 2024. 

Elevation of bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership gave a major boost to India’s ‘Look East’ policy.

Talks between Prime Minister Modi and Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on September 5, 2024 focused on cooperation in the fields of defence and security, maritime domain awareness, education, AI, Fintech, new technology domains, science and technology and knowledge partnership.

The two leaders called for strengthening connectivity between the countries to enhance economic and people-to-people ties. They also called for acceleration in green corridor projects, the MEA said after the meeting.

Taking stock of the robust progress in economic ties, the leaders called for further expanding trade and investment flows between the two countries.

Singapore is India’s largest trade partner in ASEAN and the sixth largest trade partner worldwide. In 2023-24, the total bilateral trade was USD35.61 billion which accounts for approximately 29% of India’s total trade with ASEAN.

At the same time, the country is a leading source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). It was the largest source of FDI during the last financial year valued at $11.77 billion. The cumulative inflow of FDI from Singapore from April 2000 to March 2024 is around USD159.94 billion.