 "PM Modi to visit Brunei, Singapore in first week of Sept to boost ties")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Brunei on September 3-4, seeking to further strengthen the bilateral cooperation in all existing sectors, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday.
This will be the first bilateral visit of an Indian prime minister to Brunei, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his media briefing.
The visit will also mark 40 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties between India and Brunei, he said.
From Brunei, Modi is slated to visit Singapore on September 4-5 at the invitation of his Singaporean counterpart, the MEA said.
Later, in a statement, the MEA said the prime minister is scheduled to visit Brunei Darussalam on September 3-4 at the invitation of Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah.
Brunei is an important partner in India's "Act East" policy and its vision of Indo-Pacific. The visit will further strengthen India's cooperation with Brunei in all existing sectors, including defence cooperation, trade and investment, energy, space technology, health cooperation, capacity building, culture as well as people-to-people exchanges, and explore avenues for cooperation in newer sectors, the ministry said.
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Modi will thereafter visit Singapore at the invitation of Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
"The leaders will review the progress of the India-?Singapore Strategic Partnership and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest," the MEA said.
During his visit, the prime Minister will call on Singapore's President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and interact with the Singaporean leadership. He will also meet business leaders from Singapore.
These visits will further strengthen India's cooperation with Brunei and Singapore both bilaterally and within the regional and multilateral frameworks, the MEA said.
Jaiswal, during the briefing, also spoke about the India Singapore ministerial roundtable, first held in 2022 and then in 2024, in which four Indian ministers participated.
The ties between India and Singapore are deep, and after the roundtable, they have "deepened and strengthened", and the prime minister's visit seeks to further strengthen the relationship, the MEA spokesperson said.