Transcript of Remarks by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Overseas Singaporean Reception in New Delhi, India on 15 Jan 2025

    First, thank you very much, High Commissioner Simon Wong, and your whole team. I want to thank all of you for your work in diplomacy and the sheer effort and energy you're putting into the Singapore-India relationship. Thank you to everyone in the High Commission.

    I'm truly happy to be here with my wife, Minister Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State Sim Ann, our three Members of Parliament – Mr Lim Biow Chuan, Ms Joan Pereira and Dr Wan Rizal – and the officials from our various agencies. Very happy to be here together with you.

    We are commemorating the 60^th anniversary of Singapore’s diplomatic relations with India. It is an important occasion, but it also marks a new phase in our relationship. We are on a new trajectory with India. We are strengthening existing areas of cooperation, like skilling, defence, and our business and economic ties. And we are also embarking on new initiatives, such as supporting India in developing its semiconductor ecosystem and new-generation industrial parks, and collaborating on sustainability, which is a very important priority for both India and Singapore going forward.

    So it is a 60-year-old relationship, but it's a relationship that has kept evolving, kept refreshing itself, and now serves the future-oriented interests of Singapore and India.

    And we see eye to eye with India’s leadership. Despite being such different countries - one very small country and one not so small country. A country where most live a number of MRT stops away from each other, and another country that's really continental, not just in geographical scale, but in its regional diversity.

    That brings me to another point. When we as Singaporeans, as officials, entrepreneurs, professionals, individuals, when we engage with India, we've got to appreciate India's diversity, and immerse ourselves in it where we can. That diversity is a strength of India, and we've got to get to know it, and engage with it. That’s one of the reasons why my last visit to India - before I became President, when I was still in government - was to Assam. We knew the development of the North East was a priority for the Indian government.

    This time, as part of this State Visit, I'm going with my delegation to Odisha. Again, part of the East that is rising. We've got to understand the opportunities in different parts of India. Not because Singapore, as a small country, can spread itself thin, but because there will be specific opportunities for us to add value in these diverse areas of the country, bringing our Singapore experience and the accumulated skills that we built up in certain areas.

    And whatever we do in India, we do it with some humility. This is a continent that has a long history and depth of culture, as well as new business models, which we can learn from as well. It’s a two-way learning relationship. So our engagement with India has to be mutually respectful.

    There is another angle to engaging more broadly at India. Our businesses too, are interestingly moving beyond engaging directly in business operations, to looking at how they can help the communities that they are involved in. These are businesses, big and small.

 And finally, us as individual Singaporeans. We too need to broaden our engagements with India. We now have more student exchanges between our universities and other institutions of higher learning. Our Institute of Technical Education is sending our trainers to India and exchanging trainees. And India has wonderful opportunities for Singaporeans as tourists, who want to open their eyes to a different part of the world and appreciate its beauty and the wisdom that it has evolved through the centuries.

 So let's broaden our view of India. Engage more often with it. And we'll be the better for it. India wants to benefit from Singapore, and Singapore wants to benefit from India. That mutual interest that we have in strengthening our relationship is now a rock-solid foundation for the future.

Thank you very much to all of you who've come. I know some have come from outside New Delhi, from Chennai, from Mumbai, some from other cities. Thank you very much for taking the trouble. I hope the food justifies the trip, but even if it doesn't, I think the conviviality and the interaction amongst all of you as Singaporeans, will really make it worthwhile.

 A happy 60th year for Singapore, a happy 60th year for diplomatic relations with India. And for those of you who are Tamils or from other parts of South India, I hope you’ve been enjoying Pongal. Some in Northern India have celebrated Lohri. And of course, amongst the Hindus, this is the start of a six-week festival – the Mahakumbh Festival – which some of you may be engaged in, and which is a major spectacle worth understanding and appreciating. Thank you, and hoping we can all get a chance to chat.