Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on an official visit to Brunei and Singapore from September 3 to 5 to deepen ties with these two Southeast Asian nations as part of India’s ‘Act East’ policy. Maritime security is expected to figure prominently during the PM’s talks.

This will be the first-ever bilateral visit by an Indian PM to Brunei. The visit coincides with the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between India and Brunei.

“India and Brunei engage in diverse areas of cooperation, including defence, trade and investment, energy, space technology, and health among others. Approximately 14,000 Indians live in Brunei, including doctors and teachers,” Mr Jaideep Mazumdar, Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs said at a media briefing on Monday.

Mr Modi will hold talks with Brunei Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah and other leaders on a range of issues.

Highlighting Brunei’s support for India in the space program, Mr Mazumdar said, “We have received valuable support from Brunei in our space program. We have three MoUs with Brunei in this area. We have established a telemetry tracking and command station in Brunei in 2,000 and this tracks and monitors all our eastward launches of satellites and satellite launch vehicles.”

From Brunei, the PM will leave for Singapore where a discussion on maritime security will be high on the agenda of the two sides. Mr Mazumdar said India and Singapore share views on maritime security and safety.

“On maritime security and safety, of course, you know India’s position on the South China Sea. In the case of Singapore as well, they need to maintain sea lines of communication that are safe, secure, free,” Mr Mazumdar said.

“So, we have a congruence of views on that and no doubt such issues will be discussed. I can’t say to what degree, it will be discussed but these are issues that are important for all of our countries in the region and therefore, I have no doubt that they will be discussed,” he added.

Mr Mazumdar also said that the situation in the neighbourhood always comes up during bilateral visits, adding that he expects the Myanmar situation to be discussed during the PM’s visit to Brunei and Singapore.

He underscored that the two countries share a “warm and friendly relationship” and the engagements cover several sectors, including defence, trade and investment, energy, space, technology, health, capacity, building, culture and people-to-people exchanges.

During the visit, the MEA official said, the PM would engage in bilateral discussions on all aspects of our bilateral relations and cooperation with Brunei and explore new areas of cooperation.