ISAS Working Papers

The history of relations between India and Singapore pre-dates their birth as independent nation-states. In the post-independence phase, relations between the two states have been subject to both low and high points, reflecting different degrees of engagement. In the last 15 years, however, Singapore-India relations have been on a relative upswing, characterised by closer association across a range of areas. This paper aims to provide an assessment of these more recent trends in relations between the two countries, looking at both traditional issue areas such as economic and defence-strategic ties as well as interrogating areas that are deemed relatively 'non-traditional' in nature, namely, education-knowledge transfer and building societal-level links between the two countries. This assessment will involve exploring both the future possibilities and potential pitfalls attendant to this bilateral relationship.