India and Singapore are close to sealing a long-term co-operation agreement between the two countries’ Armed Forces, which will allow the Singapore Army to use the Indian Army’s training infrastructure for its own forces.

India’s High Commissioner to Singapore Dr S Jaishankar told The Indian Express, “India and Singapore’s naval forces have a fairly old relationship and Air Forces entered a long term training pact last October. Now this will expand to all three services, as we expect an agreement between the armed forces sometime soon.”

Being a small country in terms of land mass, Singapore has no real estate for practicing military maneuvers and has traditionally gone to other countries for its training and exercises, including New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and South Africa. But India’s closer proximity and the warm economic and political ties between the two nations in the last 15 years provides the answer Singapore has been looking for in its quest for a stable partner.

Last year, the Singapore Army came to Deolali for artillery training and once the Army co-operation pact is signed, more extensive exercises can be expected.