India established diplomatic relations with Singapore in 1965. India was approached by Singapore to raise and train its army. Those days, India had successfully thwarted Chinese designs to cultivate Bhutan into its fold. The Chinese raised objections on Indians training the Singaporeans. Singapore had to look elsewhere. This was the ground reality of power play.

Then Singapore approached India for creating Special Economic Zones and Indian politicians laughed it away. This was the first strategic blunder committed by India. But India was never built by politicians those days; India had visionaries like Vikram Sarabai, Homi Jahangir Bhabha and others. Foreign policy was hostage to politics. Besides, the communist and communist minded Indian diplomats and bureaucrats worked overtime supporting the communist China cause.

The other most quoted incident is Singapore was approached by India for collaboration in Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Project. Somehow it did happen. Singapore was not just one nation, in 1970’s UK wanted to create a light fighter with India or Sweden.

India was an inward looking country with no global aspiration whatsoever until, the dynamic leadership of The Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, came to power. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao was a reformer by nature. He had implemented land reforms in his home state; he implemented market and forward looking reforms in India. He unshackled India from the past and among his many initiatives, “Look East Policy” was to became one of the cornerstones of India foreign policy. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s tenure to National Democratic Alliance tenure, India saw extraordinary bunch of political leaders who integrated India into the international community at break neck speed. When PV Narsimha Rao lost the next election, suspectedly engineering by his own party colleagues, Singapore’s leaders expressed that the Indian electorate was ungrateful and has forgotten the gains made during Mr. Rao’s administration. Singapore’s Mentor Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, like other ASEAN leaders, could identify instant personal chemistry with Prime Minister Rao. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, went calling to Singapore in September 1994 following a visit to India by then Singapore prime minister Goh Chok Tong in January. Singapore had sensed the potential of a long-term strategic partnership with India and positioned itself as “natural partner” of India. Singapore’ caught ‘India Fever’ for diversifying its business and defense opportunities, heralding a paradigm shift. Singapore played a key role in ensuring India’s inclusion in ASEAN, first as a Sectoral Dialogue Partner in 1992, Full Dialogue Partner and finally, India’s entry into the ASEAN Regional Forum. Singapore supports India’s bid for a permanent Security Council seat in the United Nations.

Singapore and India have also engaged in joint military exercises and conducting joint anti-piracy exercises around the Straits of Malacca and the Bay of Bengal. The joint patrolling of the seas by the two nations has been extremely helpful in protecting the commercial sea lanes, cutting off drug trafficking, curbing arms smuggling and preventing maritime terrorism.

Next major milestone was achieved during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Singapore visit in 2002. It fructified into Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Singapore. The bilateral trade has grown almost 70% to S$19.9 billion in 2006, making India Singapore’s 12th largest trading partner in 2006. Singapore, in turn, has become India’s 3rd largest export destination. In 2006, Singapore was the 4th largest investor in India, with investments of US$621 million. In 2005, India invested almost $1.2 billion, making India our 7th largest Asian investor.

Under the extra ordinary legacy of foreign policy and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who also happens to be the key member of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s government, Singapore-India Defence Policy Dialogue was established under the Defence Cooperation Agreement signed in October 2003, and inaugurated in March 2004. In 9 October, 2007, a bilateral agreement has been signed for the Conduct of Joint Military Training and Exercises in India between the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) and the Indian Air Force (IAF).

India and Singapore relations have turned a full cycle. As in the past, Singapore is asking access to Indian military and economic co-operation. India missed the opportunity last time. Will it happen again? Only time can tell and like in past, the communist are back too.