India, Singapore extend agreement for army training,exercise facilities by five years

India and Singapore last night signed a fresh agreement to extend the use of training and exercise facilities in India by the Singapore Army for a further period of five years from August this year.

The agreement was signed by Indian Defence Secretary Radha Krishna Mathur and Singapore's Permanent Secretary of Defence Chiang Chie Foo in the presence of the defence ministers of the two countries-A.K. Antony and Dr. Ng Eng Hen.

It may be recalled that a bilateral agreement for utilization of facilities in India by the Singapore Air Force and Army was signed in October 2007 and August 2008 respectively.

The agreement for training and exercises of Singapore Air Force in India was extended up to October 2017 during the visit of Singapore's Permanent Secretary of Defence to India in July last year.

Singapore is the only country to which India is offering such facilities.

Antony, who is now on a three- nation visit, arrived in Singapore last evening.

The two sides held wide ranging talks on defence cooperation. They also exchanged views on global and regional security issues, including Asia-Pacific security.