Singapore Foreign Minister George Yong-Boon Yeo takes a keen interest in India - something he says goes back to his first visit here in the eighties. He also plays an active role in the Nalanda project. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, he talks about the difference in the ways in which tiny Singapore and large India deal with diversity, about how India has changed over the last few decades, and about how the world looks at China

•Welcome to Walk the Talk. My guest this week is one of the most youthful diplomats you’ve seen — a foreign minister representing a very tiny country, one of the smallest in the world, yet somebody who carries a big, heavy voice not just in Asia but all over the world, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yong-Boon Yeo.

Thank you very much.

•Sometimes I wonder that you know more about Indian politics than many of us do. Do you have an India fascination?

Yes. I first came to India in 1986 to attend a friend’s wedding deep in the south. That was my first encounter with India. While traveling to Madras, I remember joining the queue. Indian passengers had all kinds of gadgets from Singapore. And they had to clear Customs methodically, and the officer was punctilious. He checked every item and would go over them with green ink. That was the Indian bureaucratic entry point. I was quite impressed.

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