India-Singapore Friendship Group in Indian parliament launched

New Delhi, July 12 (IANS) An India-Singapore Friendship Group in the Indian parliament was launched here Thursday on the visit of a four-member parliamentary delegation from Singapore.

The delegation, led by the country's parliament speaker Michael Palmer, called on Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar at the Parliament House here.

On the occasion, a 22-member India-Singapore Friendship Group was launched in the Indian parliament, a statement said.

The group is headed by Congress MP B.K. Handique, and has P. Karunakaran, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP from Kerala, and Shanta Kumar, Bharatiya Janata Party member from the Rajya Sabha, as vice presidents, besides other members from both the houses, the statement said.

Commending the initiative, Meira Kumar hoped the group would further bolster bilateral ties.

Palmer said that a similar group exists in the Singapore parliament and hoped that the two groups would be "warm and proactive in their approach, rather than being routines bodies".

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is visiting India on the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.