Relations between the two significantly deteriorated after India signed a 25-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the former Soviet Union in 1971. Singapore, which was pro-West in its foreign policy orientation, saw this as a de facto alliance between the Indians and the Soviets. India’s ambivalent stance during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and its pro-Vietnam policy during the Cambodian crisis further strained its bilateral relations with Singapore. Later, India embarked on a military modernisation programme in the 1980s, a period which also saw an expansion of India’s naval power in the Indian Ocean Region. This naval expansion followed the development of port facilities in the Andamans at the mouth of the Straits of Malacca and the leasing of a Soviet nuclear submarine. This led many Southeast Asian states, including Singapore, to view India suspiciously. All in all, the Cold War was a period of missed opportunities since there were no fundamental bilateral issues of dispute between the two countries.