Modi's Singapore, Malaysia visits to boost defence ties

PM also to hold talks with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and visiting heads of govts of China and New Zealand in Kuala Lumpur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is off to a five-day visit to Malaysia and Singapore on Saturday. Apart from attending multilateral East Asia and Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean)-India Summits, the PM will hold talks with the leaderships of Malaysia and Singapore to strengthen bilateral economic engagement and defence cooperation in a region that is of strategic importance to both India, and its largest neighbour China.

At the 10th East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur, the PM is slated to hold talks with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, as well as the visiting heads of governments of China and New Zealand. Seven declarations are slated to be adopted at the East Asia Summit with the focus being on combating terrorism after last week’s terror attacks in Paris, as also the situation in West Asia and the South China Sea imbroglio.
 
East Asia Summit is a forum that meets annually and comprises the 10 Asean countries plus eight others, including China, Russia, the US and India.

At the 13th Asean-India Summit, efforts will be made to take forward the negotiations on a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement involving the 10 Asean and its six free trade area partners, including India. The external affairs ministry said on Wednesday the negotiations have seen some breakthroughs and are expected to be concluded in 2016.

The agreement is expected to further boost the India-Asean trade, which has got fillip with the creation of Asean-India Free Trade Area in July 2015 after the coming into force of the Asean-India Trade in Services and Investment Agreements, MEA’s secretary (east) Anil Wadhwa said.

Asean is currently India’s fourth largest trading partner, with trade between India at Asean at $76.52 billion in 2014-15. India’s exports to Asean were $31.81 billion and imports were $44.71 billion. Wadhwa said RCEP would open the door for Indian business in the RCEP countries having combined gross domestic product of $17 trillion.

In Kuala Lumpur, the PM will hold bilateral talks with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak. Modi will unveil a statue of Swami Vivekananda and gift a bust of Mahatma Gandhi to be installed in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya. He will also interact with a group of Indian businesspersons. India-Malaysia bilateral trade is $14 billion. Nearly two million people of Indian origin live in Malaysia and constitute eight per cent of the country’s total population.

The highlight of the PM’s Singapore visit will be signing of the bilateral 'strategic partnership' and inking of an enhanced defence cooperation pact. He will also address the Indian community. Besides, he will address an audience comprising academics, politicians and other eminent persons at the prestigious ‘Singapore Lecture’ on November 23.

Singapore has 350,000 Indian expatriate community and an equal number of people of Indian origin. The bilateral trade with Singapore is $17 billion. Singapore is currently the second-largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India at $35.9 billion (total for April 2000 to June 2015), which is 13.9 per cent of total FDI into India. Indian investments in Singapore are to the tune of $37 billion.

Wadhwa said the focus of the visit would include the 'five S plank' - scaling up trade and investment; speeding up connectivity; smart cities; skills development; and state focus. Singapore has already agreed to set up a skilling centre in ITI in Udaipur and would set up another skill centre in the north-east.