Modi unveils Gandhi’s plaque, meets Mattis in Singapore

TIL Desk/National/Singapore/ Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met United States Defence Secretary Jim Mattis in Singapore, days after the Pentagon renamed its Pacific Command as Indo-Pacific Command in a largely symbolic move to signal India’s importance to the US military.

Modi, who is in Singapore on the last leg of his three-nation tour, held a closed-door meeting with Mattis during which both sides discussed all security related issues of mutual and global interests, sources said. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue which was addressed by the prime minister on Friday night.

The PM also unveiled a plaque to pay tribute at the immersion site of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes at Clifford Pier in Singapore, jointly with Singapore’s former premier Goh Chok Tong, on Saturday morning.Modi unveiled the plaque on the seafront where some of the Mahatma’s ashes were immersed in 1948.

‘Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and I unveiled a plaque marking the site where Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes were immersed at the Clifford Pier in Singapore,’ Modi tweeted. ‘Bapu’s message reverberates globally. His thoughts and ideals motivate us to work for the greater good of humanity,’ he said in a tweet.