During their meeting, Dr Ng and General Naravane reaffirmed the strong and long-standing bilateral defence relationship between Singapore and India and discussed regional geopolitical developments. Naravane is on a three-day visit to the country that commenced on 4 April. During this visit, the COAS will hold meetings with the top military officials of the country to further enhance relations by way of joint exercises.
The bilateral ties between the two countries have grown exponentially in the recent past which has coincided with China expanding its dominance in the region and threatening “smaller military powers”.
The chief of the world’s second largest army also met Singapore Chief of Army, Brigadier-General David Neo after inspecting the Guard of Honour at MINDEF. Naravane then visited the Infantry Gunnery and Tactical Simulator at Pasir Laba Camp where he witnessed the state-of-the-art simulators, which enable troops to hone their weaponry skills and commanders to improve tactical decision-making abilities.
On Wednesday, Naravane will visit the Changi Regional HADR Coordination Centre and Information Fusion Centre at Changi Naval Base. He is also scheduled to deliver a speech at the Goh Keng Swee Command and Staff College’s Distinguished Speaker’s Dialogue on the topic of, “India’s Strategic Perspective”.
Defence sources told The Daily Guardian that General Naravane’s visit underscores the strong and long-standing bilateral defence relations between Singapore and India which can be seen from the regular interaction through bilateral exercises, professional exchanges, visits and cross-attendance of courses.
His visit comes less than one month after the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned Singapore’s envoy to India—Simon Wong—over remarks made by the country’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Parliament in February. The MEA had termed remarks by the Singapore Prime Minister as “uncalled for”. Loong, while speaking in the parliament, had quoted Indian media reports while stating that “almost half the MPs in India’s Lok Sabha have criminal charges pending against them, including charges of rape and murder. Though it is also said that many of these allegations are politically motivated.”
In January 2021, India and Singapore signed the implementing agreement on Submarine rescue support and cooperation between the two Navies. The submarine rescue support agreement was signed at the 5th Defence Ministers dialogue held virtually between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Singapore counterpart Dr Ng Eng Hen. This came after India in 2020 offered its integrated test range at Chandipur to Singapore to conduct tests for its missiles and rockets by setting up joint test facilities under the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme of India. The Singapore air force uses IAF’s air bases to park its multiple air assets including fighter jets F-16.