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Smita Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 31
Narendra Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue as he heads to Singapore on Thursday evening on an official bilateral visit.
Since its launch in 2002, the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue has emerged as a premier Track 1 conversation among top leaders, key ministers and defence representatives from 50 Asian countries.
Past speakers have included PMs and senior ministers from China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Australia as well as the US.
Modi will deliver the keynote address this year on June 1 focusing on India’s role in the Indo-Pacific. On June 2, US Secretary of Defence James Mattis will speak on US leadership and challenges in the region.
“This dialogue is a platform to articulate regional security issues. Our Prime Minister would convey India’s views on peace and security in the region and India’s role in the region,” said Preeti Saran, Secretary, East, in MEA.
India and Singapore co-chaired the commemorative India-ASEAN summit in Delhi in January this year. Heads of all 10 ASEAN nations were chief guests for the Republic Day celebration. India is also part of the revived Quadrilateral dialogue involving the US, Australia and Japan to discuss regional security architecture.
Over the years, Shanghai-La Dialogue has been used to propose and advance initiatives on issues like maritime security in the Malacca Strait, implications of regional states’ submarine capabilities and the idea of a ‘no first use of force’ agreement in the South China Sea.
“The PM’s visit takes place as a continued engagement with a very important part of the region which symbolises our commitment to deepening relations with ASEAN states and the Indo-Pacific region within framework of our Act East policy,” said Saran.
Modi, while in Singapore, will visit a joint enterprise exhibition focusing on Artificial Intelligence, and Financial Technology. In his business community engagement he will talk about reforms and investment climate in India and engage with 20 top CEOs from Singapore.
He will also address a diaspora event in his signature style. The total resident Indian population in Singapore is 8,00,000.
On Friday Modi will be accorded a ceremonial welcome, hold a tete-a-tete and delegation talks with his counterpart Lee Hsein Loong, visit Nanyang Technological University ranked the best in Asia. On June 2, Modi will unveil a plaque of Mahatma Gandhi at Clifford Pier, where his ashes were immersed in the sea on March 27, 1948.
Modi will also interact with officers and sailors of INS Satpura docked at Changi naval base prior to his departure for New Delhi.
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