Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (L) and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi (Photo: news.asiaone.com) Singapore (VNA) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Singapore on November 23 for his two-day official visit to the Southeast Asian nation.
The visit, at the invitation of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, is a special occasion as the two countries are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.
According to a press release of the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore and India will sign a joint statement on lifting the bilateral relations to strategic partnership.
Accordingly, the two countries will expand and deepen bilateral cooperation in key areas such as the defence, economic and culture sectors.
On this occasion, the two countries will issue a joint stamp on the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties.
In recent times, India and Singapore have enjoyed increasing development in economic cooperation. Foreign development investment from India to Singapore reached 237.7 billion SGD (about 17 billion USD) in 2013.
Nearly one million Indian visitors visited Singapore, spending about 1.2 billion SGD (860 million USD) in 2014.
India currently is Singapore’s third biggest visit source market and 12th largest trading partner with bilateral turnover of nearly 24.6 billion SGD (17.6 billion USD).-VNA
