India secures Singapore's support to its plan to join patrolling in Malacca Strait

New Delhi: India on Thursday secured Singapore’s support to its interest in patrolling the Malacca Strait – a narrow stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula to the northeast and the Island of Sumatra of Indonesia to the southwest.

“Singapore acknowledges with appreciation India’s interest in the Malacca Straits Patrol,” according to a joint statement issued after Narendra Modi and Lawrence Wong, the prime ministers of the two nations, met in New Delhi.

The Strait of Malacca connects the Andaman Sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean and the South China Sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It links the Indian and Pacific oceans and is one of the busiest and most important shipping lanes in the world. China relies heavily on the Strait of Malacca for its energy imports and has long been wary of the prospects of the Indian Navy moving in tandem with the US Navy and blocking the narrow shipping lane in the event of a conflict.

Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia control the joint patrolling of Malacca Strait. Apart from Singapore, India is also holding talks with Malaysia and Indonesia for joint patrolling of the critical sea lane.

India and Singapore on Thursday also agreed to step up space and shipping cooperation, as Modi and Wong adopted a roadmap, setting the vision and direction for the next phase of bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

“Today, we have charted a detailed roadmap for the future of our partnership. Our cooperation will not remain confined to traditional areas,” Modi told journalists after his meeting with Wong in New Delhi. “In keeping with the needs of changing times, advanced manufacturing, green shipping, skilling, civil nuclear energy, and urban water management will also emerge as focus points of our collaboration.”

Wong said that the new Roadmap for the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership charted the future course for Singapore-India “cooperation in advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, sustainability, and emerging areas such as digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence and space”.

The new roadmap identified eight areas for India and Singapore to deepen cooperation – trade and economy; skills development; digitalisation; sustainability; connectivity; healthcare and medicine; people-to-people and cultural exchanges; and defence and security.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for promoting collaboration in the space sector was inked between the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) and the Economic Development Board, Office for Space Technology and Industry, of the government of Singapore. The (IN-SPACe) is an interface between the Indian Space Research Organisation and non-governmental entities, and assesses how to utilise India's space resources better and increase space-based activities. It also assesses the needs and demands of private players, including educational and research institutions, and explores ways to accommodate these requirements in consultation with ISRO.

Another MoU was inked on Thursday between India’s Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore for the establishment of a National Centre of Excellence for skilling in Advanced Manufacturing in the National Skill Training Institute in Chennai.

The two sides signed another MoU between the governments of India and Singapore over cooperation on a green and digital shipping corridor. The two sides agreed to deepen maritime connectivity and work towards the establishment of a green maritime fuel corridor.