India and Singapore explored new avenues to strengthen strategic ties and discussed ways to enhance cooperation in the defence industry and emerging domains during the 16th India-Singapore Defence Policy Dialogue held in Singapore on Wednesday.
Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and Singapore’s Permanent Secretary (Defence) Joseph Leong co-chaired the dialogue.
The Ministry of Defence said the two Secretaries explored new avenues for further strengthening the strategic relationship and expanding cooperation in areas of mutual interest, including collaboration between defence industries.
The two countries also discussed enhancing cooperation in niche and emerging domains such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, maritime security, unmanned systems, and advanced defence technologies.
The discussions underscored the importance of innovation-driven partnerships and deeper collaboration to address evolving regional and global security challenges.
They reviewed the progress of ongoing defence engagements and held wide-ranging discussions on key areas of defence cooperation, military engagements, defence industry collaboration, capacity-building, and regional security issues.
India and Singapore are partners in regional and multilateral forums, including Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led mechanisms and the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) framework. Both countries reiterated their commitment to supporting an open, inclusive, and rule-based regional security architecture and promoting practical and constructive defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
The dialogue highlighted the importance of sustained high-level exchanges and deeper institutional collaboration in advancing the India-Singapore strategic partnership. Both sides reiterated their commitment to further enhancing bilateral defence ties and promoting closer cooperation in the years ahead.
The Defence Secretary also visited Digital Operations Technology Centre of Digital and Intelligence Service of the Singapore Armed Forces.
The visit offered valuable insights into the digital and technical capabilities of the Singapore Armed Forces for exploring the potential for collaboration with the Indian Armed Forces in niche and emerging domains of warfare.
