Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal visit Singapore to boost ties

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday began her visit to Singapore to lead a ministerial delegation for the fourth India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR), scheduled for August 19-20.

In a post on X, the finance ministry said the delegation includes external affairs minister S Jaishankar, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and minister of state for electronics and IT Jitin Prasada.

Separately, the government said Goyal is leading a 70-member business delegation to the island nation to strengthen trade and investment ties between the two countries. The ISMR, since its first meeting in September 2022 in New Delhi, has emerged as a key platform to review progress and explore new areas of collaboration between India and Singapore across six pillars-advanced manufacturing, connectivity, digitalisation, healthcare and medicine, skills development and sustainability.


The latest roundtable will build on progress made at earlier meetings and explore fresh avenues to strengthen the India-Singapore economic partnership, the ministry said. Goyal and his team will focus on partnerships, investment, market access, technology collaboration and talent development. "Goyal will also call on Lawrence Wong, Prime Minister of Singapore," read a statement issued by the commerce and industry ministry.

India and Singapore entered into a free trade agreement in 2005 to strengthen bilateral commerce. Singapore was the largest source of FDI into India in FY26, with inflows of $19.8 billion. Cumulative FDI inflows from Singapore were $194.68 billion during April 2000-March 2026, accounting for 24.72% of India's total FDI inflows.