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| Photo: Lijesh Photography |
The 37th Singapore Lecture was delivered by HE Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India at the Island Ballroom, Shangri-La Hotel Singapore, organized by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
The lecture was chaired by Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies, Singapore. The lecture was titled 'India's Singapore Story'.
Prime Minister Modi paid tribute to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore’s impressive success. He noted that the effective transformation of a nation begins with a change in the mindset of its people. He mentioned that he has similar aspirations for India. Like Singapore, India is investing in education, public utilities and sustainable habitats. PM Modi valued the good working relationship between India and ASEAN and recognized ASEAN as the anchor for India’s Act East policy. He acknowledged that ASEAN is leading the way for Asian regionalism and he fully supported an early completion to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnerhip (RCEP).
Addressing the audience, Modi spoke about the long term partnership between Singapore and India scaling back to 50 years. Special mention was made about the vision and achievements of the founding father of Singapore Mr. Lee Kuan Yew. Modi spoke about the determination of the great Singapore leader in nation building with grit and strong governance. Modi spoke about adopting the model in shaping India into a developed economy in time to come.
The 'Swach Bharat' movement is not only a movement towards an emerging clean nation, but also towards developing a mindset of clean governance, Modi said.
Modi spoke about the ancient history of India and China and how similarity in cultures have shaped the economies of these nations in APAC. He advised that religion should be kept apart from terrorism and all nations should join hands in the fight against terrorism.
Modi mentioned that the past 18 months of his government has thrived to build relationship in APAC, starting from the pacific nations, Australia, Japan, Korea and ASEAN.
“Today, Singapore is one of our most important partners in the world. It is a relationship that is as strategic as it is wide-ranging,” he said.
He concluded his speech mentioning the strong partner that Singapore will be, as India forges ahead into becoming a developed nation in the coming years.
The Lecture was also attend by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, accompanied by Mr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs; Mr S. Iswaran, Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry); and Mr Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) & Senior Minister of State, Ministry of defence.
The Indian delegation included Mr Shri Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor of India; Dr S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary of India; Mr Shri Anil Wadhwa, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs; and Smt. Vijay Thakur Singh, High Commissioner of India to Singapore.
The crowd of 1000, included ambassadors based in Singapore; senior government officials; business leaders; academics; students and members of the media.
