Asian foreign policy of the Narendra Modi government potential role in Modi's pet smart city project. Earlier Modi played host to Singaporean Minister for Foreign and Law K. Shanmugam where he recalled his policies as Gujarat chief minister to expand cooperation between the two countries in, amongst others, public housing for the middle and lower classes based on Singapore's expertise. The former Singaporean prime minister, Goh Chok Tong, visited India on 10 September and held several high-level meetings with the Indian prime minister and other ministers; later in conversation with a selected members from the media he referred to the former Indian prime minister, Vajpeyee, as a scholar,
Narendra Modi by his predecessors Singh and Vajpayee. During the first few months after the election, Modi made trips to a number of different countries to further the goals of his policy, and attended the BRICS, ASEAN, and G20 summits. One of Modi's first visits as prime minister was to Nepal, during which he promised a billion USD in aid. Modi also made several overtures to the United States, including multiple visits to that country. While this was described as an unexpected development, due to the US having previously denied Modi a travel visa over his role during the 2002 Gujarat riots,