New Delhi: In Brunei for a bilateral visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque in the country’s capital city Bandar Seri Begawan on Tuesday (September 3) and inaugurated a new building in India’s high commission there.
At the mosque, where members of the Indian community were present, Modi was greeted by Brunei’s religious affairs minister Pehin Dato Ustaz Haji Awang Badaruddin, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
Earlier in the day, the prime minister upon arriving in the country met Bruneian crown prince Haji al-Muhtadee Billah, who is first in line to succeed the country’s sultan, Haji Hassanal Bolkiah.
Modi is in the country for a two-day bilateral visit – the first by an Indian prime minister – following which he will leave for Singapore.
His Brunei visit will bolster bilateral cooperation in areas such as defence, trade and investment, energy, space technology, health and culture, the MEA said in a press release last week.
Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $195.2 million in 2023, a close to $330 million dip from 2021.
During a press briefing in New Delhi a day before Modi’s visit, the MEA’s secretary (east) Jaideep Mazumdar said India would “like to have more predictable [hydrocarbon] supplies with longer term contracts from Brunei, especially in the area of gas”.
Mazumdar noted that India’s demand for natural gas was predicted to rise “many times in the near future”.
He also said officials were working towards setting up a joint working group for defence cooperation between India and Brunei.
The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on defence in 2016, which provides for a framework for high-level exchanges, exchange visits between naval and coast guard ships as well as joint exercises, Mazumdar said.
“Brunei is an important partner for India’s Act East Policy and our vision for the Indo-Pacific, and as we mark a decade of our ‘Act East’ Policy this year, the visit assumes additional significance,” he added.
The year 2024 marks the 40th year of Indo-Bruneian ties.
There are about 14,000 Indians living in Brunei as per the MEA’s estimates.
While Modi’s trip to Brunei is the first state visit by an Indian prime minister to the Southeast Asian country, Bolkiah, who has been Brunei’s sultan for the last 57 years, has made state visits to India in 1992 and 2008 respectively.
