Honourable External Affairs Minister,
Mr Jaishankar, an old friend,
Foreign Secretary, Secretaries,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Members of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good evening to all of you.
I would like to thank you for inviting me to speak today. Speaking as a former Singapore political office holder and now, the Chairman of Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore, I am honoured to deliver the lecture named after Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Shri Vajpayee has left a formidable legacy. We saw his achievements in the video and he is quite a remarkable man. His birth anniversary of the 25th of December is observed as Good Governance Day. He introduced reforms in the financial, telecommunications and power sectors, and connected major cities in India through the Golden Quadrilateral Highway Development Programme, laying the foundations for India’s subsequent growth. He also oversaw a period of strong growth in Singapore-India relations. I recall our former Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew calling on Shri Vajpayee.
During Shri Vajpayee’s visit to Singapore in April 2002, he delivered the Singapore Lecture on "India's Perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region". He spoke about how India and ASEAN share deep historical, cultural and commercial ties, and can build a closer partnership through economic cooperation, connectivity, and collaborative security frameworks. He also discussed with our then-Prime Minister Mr Goh Chok Tong the idea of establishing the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, or CECA, which laid the groundwork for the landmark agreement that came into force between our two countries in 2005.
And now, under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India-Singapore and India-ASEAN ties have continued to deepen and has expanded across trade and investment into emerging areas of technology. Bilateral relations were elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Singapore last September, reflecting the shared commitment to enhance cooperation.
The bonds between our two countries are deeply rooted in history. The name Singapore, or ‘Singapura’, was derived from Sanskrit, reflecting India’s early influence in Southeast Asia. Modern Singapore was established by the British East India Company in 1819. Until 1867, Singapore was administered from Calcutta. From the 19th century, the Indian diaspora has constituted a significant share of Singapore’s migrant community, shaping our economy, our culture and diverse social fabric that we treasure today.
These strong ties, built on strong foundations, are invaluable as we face a more challenging era. Globalisation is now challenged, creating a more fluid, less predictable landscape. We are seeing the end of the end of history. Geopolitics is now a boardroom issue, and economic resilience is a national-security priority. This is reshaping how businesses invest and operate. And even as some economies are changing their approach towards trade and investment, India is taking a more open approach with calibrated economic liberalisation. These changes in India have not gone un-noticed, and have caught the attention of long-term global investors such as Temasek.
I believe I am speaking to a like-minded audience who is committed to working together to address present uncertainties and the challenges of the future. India’s vision of “One Earth, One Family, One Future” — for inclusive, resilient and sustainable development — is a powerful rallying call in a fragmented world, and certainly resonates with us.
Today, I will first set out the context, how we in Singapore see the world, then talk about how India and Singapore are approaching these complex issues. And I will conclude with how together we can work towards a better future of stability, resilience, and prosperity.
The Global Context
So, what is the world we are operating in now? If we trace the economic centre of gravity of the world’s GDP from about 1000 AD to today, you will see an interesting pattern.
A thousand years ago, it was centred somewhere in Asia. It then moved slowly westward, across Central Asia and towards Europe with the Industrial Revolution, and then to the mid-North Atlantic in the 20th century. But in recent decades, it has started to come back eastward, as Asia has grown faster than the global average, with India, China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia all playing notable roles. And this eastward shift continues to gather momentum today, with a southward pull from the increasing weight of India.
This shift also reflects the benefits of globalisation. Trade has grown significantly, and companies build global supply chains based on the principles of comparative advantage and efficiency. Asian economies moved up the value chain in the “flying geese” model of economic development, creating jobs and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. India has derived great benefit from this, for example, in India’s thriving software industry.
However, globalisation has its costs too. In some parts of the world, communities feel left behind, left out by globalisation. Insecurity and inequality create tensions and fuel polarisation, both between and within countries. It is all too easy to point the finger at globalisation. A wider debate has emerged about the benefits of open markets and security arrangements, spurring discussions on burden‑sharing, resilience, and economic security.
And for this reason, major powers, many of whom were the chief promoters of liberalisation and globalisation, they are now recalibrating their external economic and security policies. National security is now often one of the key considerations and intersects more directly with trade, technology, and investment. This marks a shift from the open globalisation era toward a more transactional, more bilateral, and oftentimes issue‑based order.
For all of us in Asia, constructive relations with both the United States and China are important. Sustained engagement by these two countries with the region and guardrails to keep channels of communication open between them will help preserve regional stability and manage escalation.
In this environment, multilateral institutions remain indispensable, even as these institutions face headwinds. The United Nations brings together the world community of nations. Our shared challenge is to make the UN and its agencies more representative of the world today, and more agile in responding to fast‑moving crises and emerging issues. And on this matter, I believe both India and Singapore share a common view. At the World Trade Organization, members are working to restore effective dispute settlement and to modernise rules for today’s economy. But of course, the World Trade Organization is working under a very heavy burden, and we have to find new ways to help world trade move forward.
The COVID-19 pandemic and supply‑chain shocks intensified many nations’ focus on resilience and self-sufficiency, including reshoring and de‑risking. Yet it also showed how interdependent the world is. Many of the world’s most pressing challenges, from AI governance and climate change to future pandemics, require more, and not less, global cooperation.
Singapore’s Strategy: Principles in Practice
As an ASEAN member and a small, open economy, Singapore benefits when leading powers engage our region peacefully, constructively, and predictably. We champion dialogue, confidence‑building, and economic openness, so that competition is managed and the Indo‑Pacific region we operate in remains inclusive and non‑zero‑sum.
In that spirit, Singapore’s approach is guided by clear principles and rules amid growing protectionism and transactional politics. Taking steady, and well-reasoned positions across time and issues makes a nation more predictable, and a better partner. When a nation is consistent about its choices, others know where it stands and what it stands for. And that predictability supports strategic autonomy.
Singapore has been consistent on issues that matter to us. For example, on sustainability, priorities can shift across electoral cycles as governments and businesses face pressures to focus on immediate concerns like jobs, supply chains, and budget balances. And while Singapore accounts for only 0.1% of global emissions, we remain committed to climate mitigation and adaptation and try our best at the COP meetings to move the world forward on these issues. We ourselves target for net-zero emissions by 2050 in spite of being an alternative energy-disadvantaged country.
These same principles guide our approach to international trade. Singapore’s trade volume is three times our GDP. In most countries, it’s about one quarter, maybe a third of their GDP. Our is three times our GDP. As the global trading system faces its most significant stresses in decades, Singapore continues to champion free trade, investment, and digital connectivity. At the recent APEC and G20 meetings, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong called for outcome-oriented decision-making at the WTO. Consensus among its 166 members unfortunately makes it hard to modernise rules for today’s economy.
So as the WTO evolves, pathfinder initiatives such as the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership, or FIT-P, can help. Prime Minister Wong calls this “flexible multilateralism” — working with different partners on different issues, laying the building blocks, so that eventually others can join. In fact, the EM and myself, when we were having lunch today, we talked about India’s approach of also flexible partnerships on different issues. This adds a new dimension, these flexible partnerships, to Singapore’s 28 FTAs which connect us with a network of over 40 economies, from Asia to Europe, the Gulf countries, Central Asia, and North and South America.
Singapore is also working with like-minded economies to create useful linkages between RCEP, CPTPP, and partnerships with the EU and other regional groupings. Many of these arrangements were designed from the outset to be open and inclusive, and this openness is bearing fruit. For example, countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are seeking to join RCEP. And last year, CPTPP welcomed the UK as its first new member since the CPTPP’s establishment in 2018. And just last month, the CPTPP countries held their first trade and investment dialogues with both ASEAN and the EU, further broadening the scope of the partnership.
Progress in new areas such as digital trade and the green economy can also be advanced through targeted sectoral agreements. The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, or DEPA, signed in 2020 by Singapore, Chile, and New Zealand, is gaining momentum — with South Korea joining last year, and several other countries expressing interest. If you recall, the TPP, now the CPTPP, started with the P4, with a similar collection of four smaller economies.
Similarly, negotiations have also started on a Green Economy Partnership Agreement, which seeks to foster cooperation in sustainable aviation fuel, carbon credits, renewable energy certificates, and other aspects of the green economy.
For Singapore, partnerships are how we put principles into practice. They allow a small, open economy to achieve scale and impact. We pool strengths across market access, finance, technology, and talent to keep trade open, build interoperable digital systems, and advance credible sustainability pathways that strengthen supply chains and, important for all of us, create good jobs for our people. And in each of these areas, India is a partner that brings significant scale, capability, and momentum.
India: Steadfast Progress towards Viksit Bharat
India, the most populous country, and fourth-largest economy in the world and rapidly growing, has risen to the challenges of a turbulent era with remarkable strategic clarity. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, reforms have been pursued at scale and with continuity of purpose, anchored in the goal of Viksit Bharat. India’s vision for a changing world emphasises strategic autonomy, resilient and trusted supply chains, open connectivity, and technology-enabled inclusion.
India has built a strong position in IT and global services, anchored by Global Capability Centres and deep pools of software and engineering talent. At a time when many countries are ageing, India is leveraging its demographic dividend of a young and skilled workforce to meet global demand across diverse industries.
In manufacturing, Production-Linked Incentive schemes are building capabilities to meet domestic demand and integrate into global value chains. A case in point is the rapid expansion of smartphone production, with a rising share of global shipments originating from India.
In parallel, India is investing in and expanding its maritime sector and modernising ports and logistics corridors. Improving maritime connectivity unlocks the economy’s full export potential and positions India as a rising force in global maritime trade. As part of this growth story, during his visit to India, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong joined Prime Minister Modi to deliver speeches at the inauguration of PSA’s Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal Phase 2 expansion on September the 4th this year. With an investment of US$1.3 billion, it is the largest in India, capable of accommodating multiple mega container vessels.
Much of India’s growth momentum has been enabled by India’s commitment to critical regulatory reforms to improve the ease of doing business. In the last few months, the Goods and Services Tax has been simplified to support a unified national market. I congratulated the Finance Minister on this when I met her earlier today. 29 labour laws have been consolidated into four labour codes for more efficient compliance. Something which many observers thought might not have been possible in India. But you have made it possible. These efforts have made India increasingly attractive for investment, and particularly for foreign institutional investors like Temasek, and have importantly provided an even more conducive environment for deeper Singapore-India cooperation.
We are already seeing tangible results in the growing number of joint initiatives between the two countries. The UPI–PayNow linkage now enables people and small firms to move money instantly at low cost in a trusted and reliable manner between our two countries. Public agencies and banks in both countries have run live electronic bills of lading on TradeTrust, streamlining paperwork and accelerating trade. Partners such as Singapore’s ITE Education Services are building skills pipelines. And work is also advancing on trusted data flows, cybersecurity cooperation, and green‑economy projects that will strengthen resilience in our economies. And this work is led by the Foreign Minister and the External Affairs Minister of India, together with a team of relevant ministers, who meet regularly to move the agenda and its execution forward.
Partnerships for an Open, Resilient Indo-Pacific
Countries that act in enlightened self-interest, by collaborating with others, help to create shared value from a growing pie. But those that view the world through the zero-sum lens of narrow self-interest, may extract value for now, but only from a pie that is likely to shrink. The quest for national resilience and looking after your self-interest, need not be inward-looking. Enlightened self-interest encompasses much more than that.
India’s policy of multi-alignment has served it well, as it works with different partners on different issues. It bridges East and West, North and South, engaging in the G20, BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and participating in the Quad. It anchors one end of the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor and is a member of the I2U2 partnership. India’s active, pragmatic diplomacy under Prime Minister Modi has opened new avenues for cooperation while preserving strategic autonomy.
To India’s West, significant milestones this year include the signing of the India-UK FTA, and the FTA with the European Free Trade Area coming into effect.
To the East, India is tapping into ASEAN, which is the fourth-largest economic bloc in the world. For example, India is working on an instant cross-border retail payments platform with Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines that is expected to be operational by next year. So the UPI-PayNow linkage is just the start. Deeper partnerships with Southeast Asia can unlock significant potential, and Singapore welcomes the immense mutual value that partnerships with India can create.
Beyond finance and trade, India is a major partner in addressing global challenges. It has long been a key global supplier of affordable vaccines and medicines, contributing to disease eradication and mitigation, particularly among children. During COVID-19, through its Vaccine Maitri programme, India reinforced its position and reputation as a significant and dependable partner in humanitarian efforts, especially in the Global South.
Looking ahead, issues such as AI governance and climate change require greater international collaboration, even as traditional multilateral mechanisms face pressure. This is an opportunity for like‑minded countries to step up, provide leadership, and partner with the private sector to develop and deploy solutions. The India AI Impact Summit next February illustrates this forward‑looking and collaborative approach.
In this landscape, government action alone will not suffice. Impact can be amplified through partnerships with trusted, committed institutions which can bring together capital, capability, and innovation.
Temasek in India
At Temasek, we see ourselves serving as a bridge connecting governments, investors, innovators, and communities to solve shared challenges.
When Temasek began investing across Asia outside of Singapore in 2002, India was one of our first on-ground markets. We opened our Mumbai office in 2004 more than 20 years ago, and since then, India has remained a key focus marketplace. Today, our portfolio, together with the investments of Temasek’s Singapore-based portfolio companies, exceed US$50 billion in India.
Our portfolio spans diverse sectors like financial services, logistics, consumer and healthcare, and includes our investments in Manipal Hospitals and Haldiram’s. As India continues to surge ahead, the opportunities are growing. And we look forward to partnering and investing more in India and creating value with founders, with families, and with global operators.
Several Temasek portfolio companies have built significant operations and local workforces here. Sembcorp, for example, has a presence across 18 states and is expanding its renewables portfolio. With a total renewables capacity of more than 7.6 gigawatts, its projects provide reliable and affordable energy to power more than 600,000 homes.
Beyond capital, Temasek and our portfolio companies have supported social impact. For example, our portfolio companies have provided skills training for more than 10,000 nurses in India in the last two and a half years. During the COVID pandemic, our Temasek teams worked closely with the Indian government and corporate partners, to source for life-saving medical equipment, and together with Singapore’s government, supported Indian migrant workers in Singapore. In 2007, our subsidiary, Fullerton Financial Holdings, set up Fullerton India Credit Company to serve vulnerable and low-income groups and support financial inclusion. The FICC was acquired by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group in 2023.
So as a long-term investor, Temasek will continue to partner with capital and capabilities as India advances towards Viksit Bharat.
Conclusion
From both the geopolitical and economic lenses, India offers distinct strengths — a large domestic market, a world‑class talent pool, and favourable demographics. Supported by an enabling policy environment, this has positioned India as a “resilience partner” for countries, industries and companies worldwide.
This is a period of transition where the future remains fluid and changing. What endures is India’s and Singapore’s shared commitment, as close partners, to peace, stability, growth, and mutual prosperity. Prime Minister Modi, welcoming Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to Delhi in September this year, said that India and Singapore share a “partnership with purpose, rooted in shared values, guided by mutual interests, and driven by a common vision for peace, progress and prosperity.”
So let us uphold what has served us well, adapt to a changing environment, and develop innovative practical solutions for the challenges ahead. Success will depend on sustained, multi-generational commitment from all stakeholders — governments, policymakers, businesses, and citizens — and India will find a ready partner in Singapore.
Thank you very much.
