India and Singapore on Thursday signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) and one Letter of Intent (LoI) to strengthen bilateral cooperation in maritime heritage, food safety, telecommunications, and broadcasting regulations, news agency IANS reported.
The agreements were signed during the 4th India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable, which was attended in Singapore by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, and Minister of State for Electronics and IT, and Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasada.
According to a Finance Ministry statement issued after the meeting, the agreements will further strengthen bilateral cooperation across diverse areas of mutual interest.
The Singapore delegation was led by Gan Kim Yong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry.
K Shanmugam, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security; Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs; Josephine Teo, Minister for Digital Development and Information; and Jeffrey Siow, Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Finance, also participated in the Roundtable.
The 4th India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable reviewed progress and explored new opportunities for cooperation across six key pillars: advanced manufacturing, connectivity, digitalisation, healthcare and medicine, skills development and sustainability.
The discussions reaffirmed the strong momentum in the India-Singapore partnership and the commitment to translate this into concrete outcomes, further strengthening the future-oriented and mutually beneficial economic partnership, the statement said.
Singapore key trade and investment partner for India
Singapore is India’s largest trade partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is the leading source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and among the largest sources of External Commercial Borrowings and Foreign Portfolio Investment.
Bilateral trade expanded after the conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), from USD 6.7 billion in FY 2004-05 to USD 36.1 billion in 2025-26.
Singapore is India’s sixth-largest trade partner, with a share of around 2.96 per cent of India’s overall trade.
India’s imports from Singapore in FY 2025-26 were USD 24.24 billion, while exports to Singapore totalled USD 11.86 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of USD 12.38 billion.
In FY 2025-26, Singapore was the largest source of FDI into India, with FDI flows of USD 19.8 billion.
Cumulative FDI inflows from Singapore to India stood at USD 194.68 billion between April 2000 and March 2026, accounting for around one-fourth of total FDI inflows into India.
The top sectors attracting FDI equity inflows from Singapore are services, computer software and hardware, trading, telecommunications, and drugs and pharmaceuticals.
Around 9,000 Indian companies are registered in Singapore. Six PSUs, 10 banks, CII, and FICCI have their offices in Singapore.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Singapore in September 2024, it was announced that Invest India would open an office in Singapore to facilitate investments from the Southeast Asian country.
(With IANS inputs)
India, Singapore sign MoUs to strengthen maritime heritage, food safety
