Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that India and Singapore will soon upgrade their Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) following a bilateral summit with his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong in Singapore during which both sides called for regional peace and stability. "When India opened up to the world and turned to the east, Singapore became a partner and a bridge between India and Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)," Modi said while addressing a business and community event here. Congratulating the navies of the two countries for the 25th year of the Singapore India Bilateral Maritime Exercise (Simbex), he said trilateral exercises will also be started soon. RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc and the six states with which Asean has existing free trade agreements - Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. Modi arrived here earlier on Thursday on the third and final leg of his five-day tour of southeast Asia after making a brief stopover in Malaysia on his way from Indonesia. Mr Mohamad is on his first official visit here after his Pakatan Harapan coalition swept into power on May 9.
The annual three-day regional security forum begins in Singapore.