Before that, he is scheduled to visit Brunei on September 3-4 at the invitation of Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah.

Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, Jaideep Mazumdar, said that India and Brunei are working towards setting up a “joint working group in defence”.

Prime Minister Modi is visiting Singapore after nearly six years, he said.

“This comes at a time when a new leader is in Singapore and this is an opportune time to set the stage for the next stage of our vibrant bilateral relations,” Mazumdar said.

The Secretary (East) said India-Singapore ties have “evolved” and there is a “dynamic strategic partnership” encompassing various areas from shared history and people-to-people ties that form an important link between the two countries.

“Our trade and investment flows have shown a steady growth, we have robust defence cooperation and growing exchanges in culture and education. We have identified new anchors of our partnership under the India-Singapore ministerial roundtable framework,” he said.

Four Indian ministers participated in the recently held second India-Singapore ministerial roundtable.

During the event, the ministers from both sides discussed new thrust areas that we can identify in futuristic areas of cooperation. “A number of new, forward-looking futuristic areas of cooperation were identified in digitisation, sustainability skill, health, advanced manufacturing and connectivity, and we are likely to exchange a number of MoUs during the forthcoming visit of the prime minister,” he said.

“We also expect the visit (to Singapore) to give thrust to the cooperation in the field of semiconductors,” the top official of the MEA said.

“India-Singapore relations are poised for an even bigger takeoff, than what it has been in the last 10-15 years or so. That is because, we have gone to the next level of identifying areas of bilateral cooperation whether it be in food security, renewables, green hydrogen and semiconductors. These are areas where we have great complementarities,” said Mazumdar.

For Singapore, India presents tremendous opportunities and for India, Singapore presents many options, whether it is value chain, digital technology, and semiconductors, he added.

Singapore is India’s largest trade partner in the ASEAN bloc and the country is a leading source of foreign direct investment.

It is India’s sixth largest trade partner worldwide and was the largest source of FDI during the last financial year valued at USD 11.77 billion, he said.

“The visit will also take place in light of our 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations which we are celebrating in 2025, and the 10th year of our strategic partnership with Singapore,” he added.

Modi’s visit to Brunei will be the first bilateral visit of an Indian Prime Minister to that country. It will also mark 40 years of diplomatic ties between India and Brunei.

“Brunei is an important partner in India’s ‘Act East’ Policy and its vision for the Indo-Pacific. And, as we mark a decade of our ‘Act East’ policy, the visit assumes additional significance,” the MEA official said.

Brunei had been “our country coordinator in ASEAN” from 2012-2015, and played a key role in “our further engagement with ASEAN and continues to do so today”.

“We have received a valuable contribution from Brunei in our space programme. We have three MoUs with Brunei in this area. We have established a telemetry tracking and command station in Brunei in 2000 and this tracks and monitors all our eastward launches of satellites and launch vehicles,” Mazumdar said.