India, Singapore to hold 2nd round of Ministerial Roundtable next week

New Delhi [India], August 24 (ANI): The second round of the India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) will be held in Singapore on August 26, the Ministry of External Affairs said here on Saturday.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw will participate in the meeting, the MEA said in a press release.

During their visit, the ministers will interact with their counterparts and will also call on Singaporean leadership, it said.

“ISMR is a unique mechanism established to set a new agenda for India-Singapore bilateral relations. Its inaugural meeting was held in New Delhi in September 2022,” the MEA stated

“This meeting will enable both sides to review various aspects of their Strategic Partnership and identify new avenues to further elevate and broaden it,” it added.

Notably, the relations between India and Singapore are based on shared values and approaches, economic opportunities and convergence of interests on key issues.

There are more than 20 regular bilateral mechanisms, dialogues and exercises, according to the High Commission of India in Singapore.

There is great convergence on various international issues and the two nations are members of a number of forums, including the East Asia Summit, G20, Commonwealth, Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS).

Earlier on August 19, Secretary East, Ministry of External Affairs Jaideep Mazumdar held a meeting with the Permanent Secretary for Law and Second Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Singapore, Luke Goh in Delhi. The two sides held discussions on bilateral, regional and important international issues of mutual interest.

Taking to X, Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated, “Secy (East) @JaideepMazumder met Permanent Secretary for Law and Second Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Singapore, Luke Goh in New Delhi today. Discussions covered bilateral, regional and important international issues of mutual interest.”

In July, EAM S Jaishankar held a meeting with his Singapore counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Vientiane, Laos, and spoke about creating a new agenda for the bilateral ties.

“Great conversation with dear friend FM @VivianBala of Singapore. Thank Singapore for steering ASEAN-India relations in the last three years as Country Coordinator. We spoke about creating a new agenda for our bilateral ties. Also appreciated his thoughts on the current geopolitical situation,” Jaishankar posted on X.