
EAM Jaishankar Meets Singapore Top Brass, Reviews Progress Of PM Modis Earlier Visit
EAM Jaishankar visited Singapore on July 13. During the visit, he called on the President of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and held meetings with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong and Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan.
The MEA noted in its statement that the leaders reviewed progress of the outcomes of Prime Minister's visit and the 2nd round of India Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR), which included areas of investments, industrial parks, semiconductors, infrastructure, skill development and connectivity. They also exchanged views on ASEAN, Indo-Pacific and global developments.
EAM Jaishankar also met Teo Chee Hean, former Senior Minister & Coordinating Minister for National Security and Chairman-designate of Temasek Holdings. Their discussion focused on transformation underway in India and opportunities for Temasek to expand its investments in India.
MEA underlined in its statement that the visit is part of continued high-level exchanges between two countries and reflects the importance India attaches to its relations with Singapore.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will arrive in Beijing on Sunday evening, his first trip to China in five years.
The visit comes at a time when both countries are trying to ease tensions and improve ties that plummeted following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.Jaishankar, who is on a two-nation tour -- Singapore and China is scheduled to arrive in Beijing this evening after wrapping up the Singapore leg of his visit.
The External Affairs Minister is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, for a bilateral meeting on Monday.
Jaishankar and Wang last met in February on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Johannesburg, where both sides echoed calls for mutual trust and support.
Jaishankar will also attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers' in Tianjin on July 15.
The Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that "EAM will visit the People's Republic of China to participate in the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers' Meeting (CFM) being held in Tianjin. EAM will also hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the CFM."
This is Jaishankar's first visit to China since relations soured following the deadly military clash in Galwan in 2020.Jaishankar's visit follows visits by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who had travelled to China in June for the SCO meetings.
Wang Yi is also expected to visit India next month to meet NSA Ajit Doval -- part of a planned round of dialogue under the Special Representatives (SR) mechanism aimed at resolving the decades-old boundary dispute.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Time of India
31 minutes ago
- Time of India
At no stage of talks with US was trade tied to Sindoor: EAM S Jaishankar
NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Monday strongly defended India's global outreach after the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack and the subsequent developments related to Operation Sindoor, saying in Lok Sabha that the international community had overwhelmingly backed India. Even as President Donald Trump again claimed he ended the India-Pakistan conflict, Jaishankar asserted there was no conversation between Trump and PM Modi between April 22 and June 17 - the two publicly known days Trump dialled Modi - and also denied trade was a part of the talks that were going on with the US, ahead of the truce. Trump continues to claim that he used trade to enforce peace. Jaishankar cited statements by Quad, Brics, the US listing of terror group TRF and the UNSC condemnation of the attack, which called for holding the perpetrators accountable, to buttress govt's argument about support for India from across the globe and to dismiss opposition's claim that India had again been hyphenated with Pakistan. He was responding to opposition MPs who had said that Indian foreign policy had come a cropper as international support was not forthcoming. He said India's objectives in its engagements with the global community was to ensure zero tolerance for terrorism, and to stress "the right to defend ourselves, right to defend the people of India against cross-border terrorism". Jaishankar said that the UNSC condemnation of the Pahalgam attack resonated throughout the international community, adding that while there are 193 members of the United Nations, only three, apart from Pakistan, opposed India's strikes on terror camps in Pakistan. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The World's Oldest Living Actors. Reportingly Undo Jaishankar also attacked Congress for agreeing with Pakistan that terrorism is a threat to both countries and accepting a reference to Balochistan in the Sharm El Sheikh joint statement, six months after the Mumbai attacks. The minister also defended his recent visit to China saying he went there to discuss de-escalation, trade restrictions and terrorism. "In 2005, China was designated as a Strategic Partner during Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to India. Strategic Partner! And there is a very famous concept called Chindia. A belief that China and India have common interest," he said, while attacking Congress functionary Rahul Gandhi for getting a briefing from the Chinese ambassador while the Doklam crisis was still on.
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
37 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Nimisha Priya's death sentence overturned: Grand Mufti Muslaiyar's office
The death sentence for Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse who was convicted of murder in Yemen, has been "overturned" and "completely" cancelled, the office of Indian Grand Mufti, Kanthapuram AP Abubakker Musliyar, stated on Monday. According to a statement issued by the Grand Mufti's office, the decision was made after a high-level meeting held in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, where it was decided to completely cancel the death sentence, which had been temporarily suspended earlier. "The death sentence of Nimisha Priya, which was previously suspended, has been overturned. A high-level meeting held in Sanaa decided to completely cancel the death sentence that was temporarily suspended earlier," the statement read. Nimisha Priya, a 37-year-old Indian nurse from Kerala, was scheduled to be executed on July 16, after she was convicted of killing a Yemeni national in June 2018, a decision that was upheld by the country's Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023. However, her execution was postponed, following "concerted efforts" by the Government of India. Earlier on July 17, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that it was actively working to support Nimisha Priya and was extending all possible assistance in the case. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, during a press briefing, stated that the MEA had appointed a lawyer to assist Priya's family in navigating the complex legal process in Yemen. This includes exploring options for clemency or pardon under Sharia law. Nimisha Priya is a trained nurse and has worked in private hospitals in Yemen for a few years. Her husband and minor daughter returned to India in 2014 because of financial reasons, and in that same year, Yemen was gripped by civil war, and they could not go back as the country stopped issuing new visas. Later in 2015, Nimisha joined hands with a Yemeni citizen, Talal Abdo Mahdi, to set up her clinic in Sanaa. She sought Mahdi's support because, under Yemen's law, only nationals are allowed to set up clinics and business firms. In 2015, Mahdi accompanied Nimisha Priya to Kerala when she came for a month-long holiday. During the visit, he stole a wedding photograph of Nimisha, which he later manipulated to claim that he was married to her. A plea made by the mother of Nimisha Priya had stated, "After a while, Nimisha's clinic began, Mahdi manipulated the ownership documents of the clinic. He also began to take money out of her monthly earnings after telling everyone that Nimisha was his wife. Nimisha had alleged that Mahdi had been harassing her and her family for years. Mahdi also seized her passport. This was done to ensure that she would not leave Yemen. He tortured her under the influence of drugs. He threatened her at gunpoint several times. He took all the money from the clinic and her ornaments." The plea further alleged that, unable to cope with the torture, Nimisha complained to the police in Sanaa, but instead of taking action against Mahdi, the police arrested her and put her in jail for six days. It was further alleged that on her return from jail, the severity of the torture increased manifold. In July 2017, Nimisha took the help of a warden of a jail located near her clinic. The warden suggested that she should try to sedate him and then convince him to give her the passport. However, sedation did not affect Mahdi, who was a substance abuser. She tried sedating him again, using a stronger sedative in order to retrieve her passport, but he died within a few minutes due to a drug overdose. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Ceasefire had no linkage with U.S. trade: Jaishankar in Parliament
NEW DELHI In a clear rebuttal of the repeated assertions by U.S. President Donald Trump that he stopped the recent India-Pakistan conflict, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday (July 28, 2025) told the Lok Sabha that there was no phone call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Trump during the tense phase with Pakistan after the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam. MEA S. Jaishankar denies involvement of U.S. President Donald Trump in India-Pakistan ceasefire Mr. Trump has said on multiple occasions that he extracted a ceasefire from India and Pakistan by threatening to cut off trade if they continued fighting. 'Sindoor an answer' Speaking in the Lok Sabha on the Operation Sindoor launched against terror bases in Pakistan in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack, he said the operation ensured that terrorists will no longer be treated as proxies. The military operation created a 'new normal' by conveying that cross-border attacks from Pakistan will draw an 'appropriate response', he said. 'I want to make two things clear – one, at no stage in any conversation with the United States, was there any linkage with trade and what was going on. Secondly, there was no call between the Prime Minister and President Trump from the 22nd of April – when President Trump called up to convey his sympathy – and 17th of June when he called up the PM in Canada to explain why he could not meet him,' said Mr. Jaishankar during the debate on Operation Sindoor. Opposition intervenes Mr. Jaishankar defended the multi-party delegations that were sent out to a number of countries to convey India's position on cross-border terror and to present the government's arguments on Operation Sindoor, even as the Opposition tried to corner the government on the repeated assertions by Mr. Trump. The Opposition's loud intervention prompted Home Minister Amit Shah to remark that they should hear out the External Affairs Minister first. 'India's External Affairs Minister who has taken the oath of office is making a statement here and they [Opposition] do not want to trust him but they have faith in some other country.' Also Read: Parliament Monsoon session LIVE Day 6 | July 28, 2025 It was on May 10, 2025, that Mr. Trump took to social media platform TruthSocial to announce a pause in the fighting between India and Pakistan, shortly before Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced the ceasefire before the media here. Mr. Trump praised Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for 'bringing the ceasefire into effect'. Thereafter, he has mentioned several times that his intervention brought about the ceasefire. On July 22, Mr. Trump repeated that he stopped the brief war between India and Pakistan that started on the morning of May 7, adding that five aircraft were shot down during the conflict though he did not clarify who owned those aircraft. 'They shot down five planes and it was back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I called them and said, 'Listen, no more trade. If you do this, you're not going to be good…They're both powerful nuclear nations and that would have happened'. Mr. Jaishankar said the Operation Sindoor had brought in a 'new normal' in the relations with Pakistan. All issues with Pakistan will be settled through bilateral means, he said and ruled out the role of a third party. 'The challenge of cross-border terrorism continues but Operation Sindoor marks a new phase. There is now a new normal. The new normal has five points – one, terrorists will not be treated as proxies; two, cross-border terrorism will get an appropriate response; three. terror and talks are not possible together – there will only be talks on terror; four, not yielding to nuclear blackmail, and finally, terror and good neighbourliness cannot co-exist, blood and water cannot flow together. This is our position,' said Mr. Jaishankar presenting the government's policy on Pakistan and cross-border terrorism following Operation Sindoor. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Mr. Jaishankar's speech 'outstanding'. 'He highlighted how the world has clearly heard India's perspective on fighting the menace of terrorism through Operation Sindoor,' Mr. Modi wrote on X.