Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a bilateral meeting with Singapore PM Lawrence Wong at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
The Ministry of External Affairs in a post on X said their talks focused on expanding cooperation in various gamut.
However, no discussion on the 50 per cent US tariffs on India was held during the meeting.
On being asked if Singapore PM Wong and PM Modi discussed the 50 per cent US tariff during their meeting in Delhi, P Kumaran, Secretary (East), denied the same.
“There was no discussion on it, except for the broad global uncertainty and the need for all of us to diversify our trade and investment relationships, and explore as many preferential trade agreements or free trade agreements as possible to diversify our supply chains and make them more resilient,” he told reporters after the meeting.
India is currently facing a 50 per cent tariff on almost all of its exports to the US. On the other hand, US tariffs on Singapore is 10 per cent.
Kumaran further said that defence talks between India and Singapore is still work in progress.
“As part of defence industry cooperation, we do talk about possibilities for co-development, co-production, developing technologies together, and possibly sharing the outputs of any such collaboration, but nothing specific yet,” the diplomat said.
PM Modi’s bilateral talk
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that PM Narendra Modi and Lawrence Wong held wide ranging and fruitful talks on Thurday.
Their discussions focussed on trade and investment, advanced manufacturing, connectivity and healthcare among others, Jaiswal said.
“Stronger India-Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership! PM Narendra Modi and PM Lawrence Wong held wide ranging and fruitful talks at Hyderabad House today. Discussions focused on expanding cooperation in trade and investment, advanced manufacturing, connectivity, digitalization, healthcare and medicine, skilling, sustainability, defence and security as also people-to-people and cultural connections. They also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest. The two PM’s adopted a Roadmap for India-Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, providing a strategic direction to the bilateral partnership,” he said in a post on X.
In a press conference after the talks, PM Modi said that both India and Singapore share similar views on terrorism, and fighting terrorism is the duty of all humanitarian countries.
“We share common concerns regarding terrorism. We believe that fighting against terrorism with unity is the duty of all humanitarian countries. In the wake of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, I express my gratitude to Prime Minister Wong and the Government of Singapore for their sympathy towards the people of India and for their support in our fight against terrorism,” he said.
The Singaporean PM arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday for a three-day official visit.
He described his visit to India as ‘fruitful’.