The BGA India Team, led by Managing Director Ratan Shrivastava, wrote an update to clients on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Brunei and Singapore to bolster the government’s “Act East” policy.

Context

  • Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Brunei and Singapore from September 3-5 to elevate India’s bilateral commercial relations, strengthen its “Act East” policy and advance efforts toward building a free and open Indo-Pacific. The visit builds on India’s ongoing engagements to deepen relations with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members through targeted, complementary and mutually beneficial bilateral initiatives. In the last few months, the heads of state of Malaysia and Vietnam traveled to New Delhi to elevate bilateral ties to a strategic partnership and a comprehensive strategic partnership, respectively.
  • India views Singapore as an economic gateway to Southeast Asia and an important geostrategic partner given its location near the Strait of Malacca. From 2023-24, Singapore was India’s largest ASEAN trading partner and the largest source of foreign direct investment, which stood at $11.7 billion. Diplomatic relations between India and Brunei were established in 1984. Brunei hosts the Indian Space Research Organization’s Telemetry Tracking and Telecommand Station, which supports India’s space research efforts.
  • India’s “Look East” policy of economic cooperation with Southeast Asia was upgraded in 2014, under Modi’s first regime, to the “Act East” policy. It has three key pillars: political and security, economic partnerships and sociocultural exchanges. The recent visit builds on these pillars through a host of new initiatives and memorandums of understandings, which encompass trade, investment, semiconductors, technology, skill development finance, energy and health.

Significance

  • India and Singapore elevated their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership from a strategic partnership by covering newer areas such as advanced manufacturing, digitization and connectivity. The visit came after the conclusion of the second India and Singapore Ministerial Roundtable, which expanded the pillars of bilateral cooperation and laid the groundwork for the four new landmark memorandums of understanding.
  • India and Brunei elevated their ties to an enhanced partnership September 3 and agreed to cooperate in trade, investment, energy, space, education and cultural exchanges. The two countries agreed to leverage the bilateral Joint Trade Committee, given the potential to tap into the China-plus-one strategy. With India’s priority to strengthen energy security and increase domestic gas consumption, the two sides committed to explore a long-term liquefied natural gas contract. Other notable developments included the inauguration of a new chancery of the Indian High Commission, the creation of a defense cooperation working group and the signing a new space cooperation pact.

Implications

  • The India-Singapore joint statement reiterated the importance of peace, stability and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea while supporting the right of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad”) members India, Australia, Japan and the United States to be active in the Indo-Pacific. This underlines the growing bilateral cooperation in the shipping channel between the Strait of Malacca and Andaman Sea. With Brunei, India agreed to strengthen cooperation in the space sector, including satellite development, remote sensing and training.
  • With Singapore companies committing to invest $60 billion in India in the next few years, businesses can expect to see new opportunities across semiconductors, digital technologies, energy and sustainability, health care, logistics, infrastructure and manufacturing. With Brunei, oil, gas and space will likely be an important facet of relations, given that Brunei is one of the largest energy producers in the region and India’s energy demand is expected to grow 6-6.5 percent annually.

We will keep you updated on developments in India as they occur. If you have questions or comments, please contact BGA India Managing Director Ratan Shrivastava at ratan@bowergroupasia.com.

Best regards,

BGA India Team

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Managing Director

Ratan is a senior executive and management consulting professional who has a proven track record in government, consulting and industry across India and Southeast Asia, with a wide network across stakeholders. He has been instrumental in developing and implementing growth strategies for both the public and private sector and has led diverse teams to secure new market opportunities. Prior to joining BGA, Ratan was at KPMG India where he helped the integration of the small and medium industry clusters, with the domestic and global aerospace, defense and space supply chains. He also served as an advisor at the Federation of ... Read More