Ramananda Sengupta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Defence, security and trade are likely to be high on the agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Indonesia and Singapore from May 29 to June 1.

While this will be his first state visit to Indonesia, he has visited Singapore twice in 2015, first in March for the funeral of the legendary Lee Kuan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore, and then again in August for a state visit.

Indonesia hosts the ASEAN secretariat and Singapore is the current chair of Asean. Indonesian President Joko Widodo had visited India as a state guest in December 2016, and then again in January 2018 for the ASEAN India commemorative summit, where he had extended the invitation to Modi to visit his country.

India and Indonesia will mark their 70th year of diplomatic relations next year.

Addressing a briefing in Delhi on Thursday, the ministry of external affairs Secretary East, Preeti Saran, said that the two nations “share deep historical linkages, pluralism and democracy, and respect for rule of law. We have millennia-old contacts, and Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam all travelled to Indonesia from India.”

The leaders of both nations collaborated while fighting against colonial rule, “and President Sukarno was the first foreign head of state to have visited India as chief guest on our Republic Day,” she said. The two nations are strong maritime neighbours and strategic partners since 2005, and Indonesia plays a vital role in advancing India’s act east policy.

Bilateral trade is currently pegged at $18 billion, with India importing crude palm oil and coal, and exporting agricultural products and bovine meat. Indian companies have invested about $15 billion in the country, creating about 250,000 jobs there in sectors like infrastructure, power, textiles, steel and automobiles.

Over the past few years, there have been several high-level interactions between the two nations, with foreign, commerce, industry and energy ministers exchanging visits, as well as the first security dialogue between the NSAs of the two nations in January 2018, where, among other things, they discussed cybersecurity, counterterrorism efforts and transnational organised crime.

Agreements on space, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, science and technology and security are likely to be signed, including a defence agreement which had expired recently. Indonesia has 100,000 people of Indian origin, and some 7,000 Indian professionals working there. Modi and Widodo will inaugurate a kite festival and exhibition which will have a Ramayana theme.

In Singapore, Prime Minister Modi will hold bilateral talks with Singapore premier Lee Hsien Loong on the morning of June 1, and unveil a plaque commemorating the scattering of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes from Clifford Pier in 1948.

He will then deliver the keynote speech in Shangri La Dialogue, which focuses on security and geostrategic issues, becoming the first Indian prime minister to do so.