India, Singapore Reaffirm Partnership To Promote Regional Stability
Mumbai: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held wide-ranging talks with his Singapore counterpart Ng Eng Hen here on Wednesday during which the two sides agreed to conduct the trilateral maritime exercise involving Singapore, India and Thailand annually from next year.
The first Singapore-India-Thailand maritime exercise (SITMEX) was held in the Andaman Sea in September as part of the security and safety of Indo-Pacific sea lines which underscored the shared responsibility of the countries to work together in keeping sea lines of communications open and strengthened interoperability between the three countries.
“The Indo-Pacific Region is vital for us and we want to further enhance our maritime participation and engagement in the region in accordance with our doctrine of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region),” Singh said.
Singh also gave satisfactory words about the training of Singapore military in India. For the 10th anniversary of Singapore air force, Indian air forces coward the joint operation with them for the first time which includes an air-sea training.
Mr Singh also reaffirmed India’s full support and active participation in the regional security architecture, namely the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus) and its many initiatives.
“Our defence ties have grown strength to strength… We appreciate India’s continued support for our training in India. We talked about security challenges here in the region, the Indo-Pacific area and in South Asia. I would say that we concluded the dialogue very successfully and affirmed our commitment to deepen defence ties,” Dr Ng said while speaking to the media.
The ministers also commended the progress in defence technology collaboration. They witnessed the exchange of a Letter of Intent to register both sides’ commitment to conclude a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate the use of Chandipur Integrated Test Range by the Singapore defence establishment.
It was agreed in further cooperation in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Geo-Spatial Data Sharing, and Cyber Security. It was also agreed to hold the 5th DMD in India next year on mutually convenient dates.
On his final day, Singh visited Kranji War Memorial and paid tributes to those who laid down their lives in the line of duty during the Second World War.
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