Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's banquet speech in honour of the Singapore Prime Minister

Your Excellency Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong,

Distinguished Guests,

I would like to extend once again a very warm welcome to Your Excellency and to the distinguished members of the delegation. Your visit will strengthen our deep bonds of friendship, continue our practice of close political consultation and expand opportunities for economic & commercial cooperation.

Our two countries have deep ties of friendship and our people are bound by many common values. Both our countries are pluralistic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies. The ties between our two countries have today evolved into a mature and balanced relationship that has grown through friendship, mutual trust and cooperation.

Indians have deep respect for Singapore's many achievements. We have admired your rapid growth and progress to economic prosperity under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his successors. You have managed to sustain high levels of economic growth while maintaining social and religious harmony and public order and discipline.

I wish to place on record India's deep appreciation of Singapore's role in increasing India's interaction with ASEAN and the region at large. Most recently, Singapore played an important role in helping forge an ASEAN consensus on India's participation in the first East Asia Summit to be held at Kuala Lumpur in December this year.

The signing of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between India and Singapore represents a historic milestone in our bilateral ties. This is the first such Agreement that we are signing. We are indeed happy that we are signing this forward-looking agreement with your country, Mr Prime Minister, which has always supported India's economic reform process, ever since the early-90s. It is our common belief that this Agreement will lay the foundation for the rapid integration of our two economies and the expansion of our trade and economic ties to fully exploit the potential and opportunities that exist in our economies.

We hope that Singaporean companies will realize the tremendous potential of the Indian market and industry. We are aware of the strengths of your companies in various sectors and we welcome investment particularly in developing our infrastructure, which will require huge capital in the years to come. Our companies are eager to collaborate in areas such as integrated township development, housing and construction projects. The knowledge economy, which is a priority area of both countries, is another area of great potential.

While it is true that trade and economic ties continue to be the bedrock of our relationship, recent years have witnessed the diversification of our contacts in areas such as defence and security, education, culture and science & technology. This is in conformity with our desire to build a broad-based relationship that would reinforce our mutual trust and understanding.

Excellency, both India and Singapore have a common desire to preserve and protect the composite fabric of our societies and to guard against forces of extremism that seek to undermine our free societies. Both countries are united in fighting such forces and it is in this spirit that we have signed the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty today.

We attach the highest importance to our relations with Singapore. Both our countries will play important roles in shaping this century which we hope will be the Asian century.

Your visit to India will contribute significantly to the development of our bilateral ties and I look forward to working with you in the years ahead to bringing the fullest benefit of our deeper engagement to the people of our two countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I now invite you to join me in a toast

To the health and well-being of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

To the happiness and prosperity of the people of Singapore, and

To the friendship between India and Singapore.