Singapore to get access to use India’s Chandipur missile test range

News:India and Singapore’s Defence minister has co-chaired the 4th Singapore-India Defence Ministers’ Dialogue(DMD) in Singapore. 

Facts:

Key takeaways from the Dialogue:

• India has offered Singapore to use its Chandipur Integrated Test Range for launching and testing missiles and rockets. 
• Singapore has territorial limitations due to its geographical location. Thus, India has already opened its military training facilities such as air force and artillery firing ranges to the Singapore armed forces.
• The two countries have also agreed to explore cooperation in the fields of artificial intelligence, geo-spatial data sharing and cyber security.
• They have also reviewed the inaugural edition of the Singapore India Thailand Maritime Exercise(SITMEX) in the Andaman Sea and agreed to conduct the exercise on a yearly basis.
• They also agreed to reaffirm mutual commitment to explore deepening Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief(HADR) cooperation in areas such as information sharing and capacity building. 

Additional information:

About Singapore-India Defence Ministers’ Dialogue(DMD):

• The DMD between India and Singapore had commenced in 2015 after both countries had signed the revised Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) to further strengthen the long-standing bilateral defence relationship. 
• Since then,the relationship has deepened to include military cooperation across all three defence services of India and Singapore.

About Integrated Test Range:

• The Integrated Test Range under the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) was set up in Chandipur,Odisha.
• The testing facility is located on the Dr. Abdul Kalam Island.It provides launch facilities for performance evaluation of rockets, missiles and air-borne weapon system. 
• Several missiles such as the Prithvi, Agni, Brahmos and tactical weapons such as Akash and Nag have been tested from there.

About Exercise SITMEX:

• The exercise is a trilateral exercise involving the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), Royal Thailand Navy(RTN) and Indian Navy(IN).
• The exercise is aimed at bolstering the maritime inter-relationships amongst India, Singapore and Thailand and contribute significantly to enhancing the overall maritime security in the region.
• The exercise was held for the first time in 2019 at Port Blair,Andman and Nicobar.