Keynote Speech by Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong SC at SIAC Delhi Conference

Honourable Chief Justice Surya Kant, Chief Justice of India

Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Law and Justice, and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs of India

Justice Tejas Karia, Judge of the Delhi High Court

Mr R. Venkataramani, Attorney General of India

Mr Davinder Singh SC, Chairman of SIAC Board of Directors

Ms Lucy Reed, President of SIAC Court of Arbitration

Ms Gloria Lim, CEO of SIAC

All SIAC Board and Court Members, as well as the many staff

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Introduction

1.                 Good afternoon to all of you and thank you very much for honouring us with your presence on a Saturday afternoon. It is very nice to be back here in Delhi again on this special occasion of the opening of the SIAC Delhi Liaison Office.

2.                 Like Mr Singh, I came to India for the first time many years ago when I was a young lawyer. I am still young, but as a younger lawyer back then. I came for work and I was told, since I had some spare time, to go and buy a book from a bookshop. Delhi is very well known for bookshops.

3.                 So my then-boss, said, “Go to Pradeep Aggarwal and buy a book. This very rare book that you cannot find in Singapore.” So I navigated my way there. Those were the days before Google Maps, mind you. And of course, in no time, I was lost in the middle of Chandni Chowk.

4.                 As a younger lawyer then, it was a sight to behold. Every street and every side lane looked the same, and I was lost for a few hours. But after a while, I found my bearings and I found the bookshop.

5.                 The bookshop was unlike any other bookshop that I have ever seen in my life. There was a small little opening – those of you who have been there will know what I am talking about – and this man peered through the hole and said, “What do you want?” So I was petrified. I gave him my book list, and he disappeared for about two minutes, and came back with all the books that I wanted.

6.                 This was before the days of AI. You could see that this was technology at its best. This was someone who understood what exactly we were looking for and was able to deliver the service exactly as I wanted.

7.                 That was my first experience in Delhi. Since then, I have come back here many times, often several times a year. Over time, I have built a rapport, I have understood, and I have grown accustomed and familiar with the place.

8.                 So this morning when I arrived on the red-eye flight at 6am in the morning, I almost immediately felt comfortable back in the space which I am comfortable with – the people, the food, the culture.

9.                 When I looked back and I reflected on what made me comfortable and what gave me that sense of assurance, I must say it is really the people.

10.             I have had the privilege of over many years working with the people in India – fellow lawyers, clients, many of whom have gone on to become good friends of mine.

11.             I must say that I have had the privilege of encountering some of the brightest legal minds I have come across anywhere in the world – eloquent, sharp, but also deeply grounded. The kind of lawyers that really make you raise your game just by being in the same room. So yes, it is great to be back.

Growth of India

12.             But as I shared my reminiscence with you, today is also more than just an affectionate memory. Today’s opening reflects trust – trust in the rule of law, trust in reliable institutions, and trust in international arbitration as an infrastructure that can allow Singapore and India to grow together in confidence.

13.             As I said, over the years, I watched India grow – visit by visit, decade by decade. Even when I first started coming here in the late 1990s, India was already a country of enormous vitality. The entrepreneurial spirit was everywhere. The talent, as I said, was unmistakable. There was also a sense that India was, back then, on the cusp of something far larger – that it was waiting to claim its place in the world.

14.             What I see today is that that moment has arrived. The infrastructure, the technology sector, Indian companies,  whichever sector they compete in, they are no longer simply competing on the world stage; they are leading on it – in pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, manufacturing, digital innovation. It is transformation that has been remarkable to witness from the outside, and I would imagine even more so from within.

15.             India is now the world’s 5th largest economy, widely projected to become the 3rd largest and a US$10 trillion dollar economy within the next decade.

16.             That trajectory is already clearly visible in the numbers. Since April 2000, India has attracted over US$1 trillion in foreign direct investment (FDI), consistently ranking amongst the top destinations for greenfield FDI globally.

17.             That, more than anything else, comes down to one thing that is common between Singapore and India, and that is a commitment to the rule of law. Because beyond the sheer scale of the domestic market, the demographics, the talent, and the infrastructure, what ultimately draws serious long-term investors is something more fundamental – the confidence that contracts will be honoured, that the rights that we have will be protected, and that when disputes arise, as they do in the ordinary course of business, they will be resolved fairly, efficiently, and predictably.

18.             That is what I see India doing precisely serious work on that front – the amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, the growth of Indian arbitral institutions, and the increasing sophistication of Indian counsel and arbitrators in international proceedings. These reflect a deliberate national commitment to making India not just a destination for investment, but a destination for the resolution of the disputes that investments inevitably bring.

19.             In that respect, if you look at the case law that has been developing on this front, they are very coherent with the position that Singapore courts have taken with respect to arbitrations – to let party autonomy take course and to intervene as lightly as possible with a supervisory oversight. So we share something that is deeply fundamental and important about our approach to arbitrations.

20.             Both countries have built their reputations on that very same foundation on rule of law – not as an abstract principle, but really, as a lived commitment. Every day – the way we work, we play, and we organise ourselves.

21.             That twinning of ideals, I think, explains much of what has developed between our two countries over the decades, and it is why I believe that there is still so much more that we can build together.

Singapore-India relations

22.             The Singapore-India partnership and relationship go back further than most people might realise. For nearly five decades after Singapore was first founded in 1819, we were administered from Calcutta as part of the Straits Settlements. Indian merchants, Chettiar financiers, professionals and educators made Singapore their home, and helped to build our young nation at a very early formative stage.

23.             The institutional ties and the legal ties run just as deep. Singapore’s Penal Code was modelled directly on the Indian Penal Code. The Penal Code is a very true reflection of the social values that we place in our society. The core framework of our social compact lies in our penal laws, and we share that deeply with India. Our Evidence Act drew from Indian legislation and our early courts and legal institutions developed in parallel with those of British India.

24.             So when the time came for Singapore to stand on its own, many years later, India was there. India was among the first countries to recognise Singapore’s independence, just two days after we became a nation in August 1965. When Singapore was still finding its place in the world, India helped us to build relationships with newly independent countries across Asia and across Africa.

25.             In fact, our Founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, later wrote in his memoirs that Singapore actively sought India’s help in gaining acceptance among Afro-Asian countries, and that Indian diplomatic missions extended what he described as “unstinting assistance.” I must say that Singapore has never forgotten that friendship.

26.             Singapore also believed in India’s future long before much of the world did. When India embarked on its economic reforms in 1991, many investors adopted the wait-and-see approach – let’s wait to see what happens. Let’s not jump in with both feet immediately. But we, in Singapore, saw something different.

27.             Mr Lee spoke often about India’s immense long-term potential. A great civilisation – learned in many ways, strong institutions, exceptional talent, and an entrepreneurial spirit in its people. He was convinced that once reforms gathered momentum, India’s rise would become one of the defining stories of the 21st century.

28.             Indeed, our former Prime Minister Mr Goh Chok Tong shared that conviction. In 2003, he described India as one of the “two external wings” of Singapore’s economy – a reflection of his belief that Singapore’s future growth would be increasingly linked to India’s.

29.             Looking back today, of course with the benefit of hindsight, those remarks were remarkably prescient. Singapore is now India’s largest source of foreign direct investment, with Singapore companies having invested close to US$195 billion in India since 2000.

30.             Bilateral trade has grown more than five-fold since our Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) came into force. More than 9,000 Indian companies have chosen Singapore as a base for their regional as well as global operations.

31.             Those figures and others are impressive. But I believe they are really the product of something much, much deeper – confidence placed early, confidence that has endured, and confidence that has continued to grow.

32.             And both governments are determined to keep building on this platform. We do not build from scratch. We stand on the shoulder of giants, but we keep building on it.

33.             The India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable, one of the most substantive bilateral mechanisms Singapore has with any country, brings together senior ministers to advance cooperation across Digitalisation, Skill Development, Sustainability, Healthcare, Medicine, Advanced Manufacturing, and Connectivity. These are amongst the most topical issues that both our countries confront.

34.             My Ministry works closely with India’s Ministry of Law and Justice on legal and dispute resolution cooperation – a recognition that this dimension of our partnership also deserves to be nurtured in its own right.  Neither side appears content to rest on what has already been built and we all welcome that.

35.             We have already seen what our two countries can achieve when we work together in good faith.

(1)  For more than two decades, CECA has given citizens the confidence to trade, to invest, to grow across both our economies.

(2)  Singapore has also been a partner in India’s urban development journey, contributing planning expertise to projects, such as Amaravati’s capital city development and the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor.

(3)  More recently, the PayNow-UPI linkage, the world’s first connection between two real-time payment systems, has made cross-border transactions faster and easier for businesses and ordinary citizens alike. It is a model that others are now looking to replicate. But we moved first and we moved fast on this – an indication of success in the collaboration between both countries.

SIAC’s Delhi Liaison Office

36.             I have taken some pains to outline to you some history because I believe that is why the opening of SIAC’s Delhi Liaison Office today is not just another institutional milestone. It is, I believe, a practical expression of that shared trust that we have developed and nurtured over so many years. A bridge between two legal communities committed to fairness, predictability, and cross-border confidence.

37.             Indian parties have consistently been amongst SIAC’s largest foreign users every year since at least 2010. Between 2011 and 2025, SIAC administered over 1,600 arbitrations involving more than 2,600 Indian parties – around 24% of all cases SIAC handled during that period – with the total sum in dispute exceeding SGD 33 billion. These numbers reflect the scale and the complexity of the disputes that Indian businesses bring to international arbitration.

38.             India also accounts for around 30% of all Emergency Arbitrator applications filed at SIAC – approximately 15% of all applications for our Expedited Procedure – a sign that Indian parties are sophisticated users who know how to deploy the full range of tools available to them.

39.             Indeed, many of SIAC’s most respected arbitrators have come from India. Many of our most significant cases have been argued by outstanding Indian counsel, some of whom are in this room today.

40.             Indian practitioners have served on SIAC’s Board and Court, contributing ideas, sharing their expertise and sharing their experiences, and all of this have helped to shape the institution.

41.             I would like to give a shout out to Justice Tejas Karia (a member of SIAC Court before his appointment to the Bench), Mr Cyril Shroff – an old friend of Singapore, Mr Harish Salve KC, Mr Darius Khambata SC, Ms Ila Kapoor, and Mr Vijayendra Pratap Singh. All of you are leading practitioners. I know you are busy people, but you have given generously your time and your expertise to help shape SIAC into the institution that it is today.

42.             So, the question was never whether SIAC should have a deeper presence in India. It was really a question of when and where. Delhi, I believe, was the natural answer as India’s capital and its legal heartland, home to the Supreme Court, the High Court, the Bar Council, and some of India’s most distinguished law firms and practitioners, I think Delhi is really where much of India’s legal community is based.

43.             Opening an office here is simply about being closer to the people we serve, and the people we hope to serve. It is about accessibility, and about demonstrating commitment to India in the most tangible way that can be done.

44.             The Delhi office is SIAC’s third in India, after Mumbai and GIFT City. It should also be understood as part of a longer-term institutional commitment to India. It reflects our confidence in India’s future, in India’s legal profession, and in India’s arbitration community. But more than that, it reflects our commitment to grow alongside India for a long time.

45.             My hope for this office is that it becomes more than just a representative office. India already has a vibrant and growing arbitration ecosystem. We are not here to compete with any of that.

46.             We are here to complement it – connecting Indian practitioners with their counterparts in Singapore and around the world, linking arbitration centres and law schools and professional bodies, and helping to bridge the next generation of talent into international practice. We believe that all of these are very important roles, and we hope to play a part in doing that and more through this office.

47.             That connection already runs in both directions. We are not building from scratch. Indian law firms and lawyers are very much part of Singapore’s legal community – practising, contributing, and growing alongside us. We welcome that, and we want to see more.

48.             Just as SIAC has chosen to plant roots in Delhi, we will warmly welcome Indian arbitral institutions doing the same in Singapore. Our door is open. The goal is a stronger legal and arbitration landscape for both our countries, and a closer tie between both our countries. Not just at the senior government level, but really across all levels – people to people, practitioner to practitioner, law firm to law firm.

Conclusion

49.             As I close, let me leave you with one thought. Indian Prime Minister Modi observed at last month’s G7 Summit that “the world today does not suffer from a shortage of resources. It suffers from a shortage of trust.”

50.             I think those words capture something quite profound. All the investment, the infrastructure, the agreements, the GDP growth and the numbers that I cited earlier, none of it reaches its full potential without trust.

51.             Trust is not something we can build overnight. It is earned over time through experiences, through working together, through projects that we undertake, through commitments that we make to one another, and through keeping our word to one another, honouring our commitments, and working together in good faith.

52.             I believe that is how Singapore and India have, over time, built a partnership that stretches back more than two centuries, from the days of the Straits Settlements to the present. It is why I believe that the best chapters of our relationship really lie ahead of us.

53.             The people in this room, as arbitrators, counsel, academics and institutional leaders, students, all of you are part of that trust infrastructure. Every award fairly decided, every argument honestly made, every principle upheld – these are the building blocks of the confidence that businesses and investors rely on. That is what we must continue to build in abundance of.

54.             Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the day.

Last updated on 25 July 2026