Photo: PTI

NEW DELHI: India is getting set to provide to Singapore naval practice and logistics facilities, which will include live firing drills in the Andamans, to add to the ones already being provided to the army and air force of the city-state for the last 10 years.

Visiting Singapore defence minister Ng Eng Hen , who reached New Delhi from Kalaikunda airbase in West Bengal on Tuesday, will hold delegation-level talks with his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman in South Block on Wednesday.

The bilateral naval agreement is also slated to be inked during the talks. With land and airspace being a scarce commodity in Singapore, the city state has been utilising Indian military facilities to train its own small but high-tech armed forces under special agreements first signed in 2007 and 2008.

India, for instance, provides facilities to Singapore for exercises of mechanised forces at Babina and artillery at Deolali ranges as well as for fighters at the Kalaikunda airbase. The two countries also regularly hold the Simbex naval wargames, which have graduated from being purely anti-submarine warfare exercises to complex ones involving multiple facets of operations at sea.

With an eye firmly on China, India has over the last several years worked towards deepening military ties with Asean countries like Singapore, Vietnam , Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia in accordance with its “Act East” policy.

India, for instance, provides military supplies and submarine training to sailors from Vietnam, and will soon begin to also train its fighter pilots on Sukhoi jets. Moreover, it has also offered BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and Akash area defence missile systems to Vietnam.

Similarly, India has also offered to train Indonesian Navy in submarine warfare, in addition to holding joint combat exercises with the country.

