Takaichi, Modi Agree to Deepen Japan-India Strategic Cooperation

New Delhi, July 2 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on Thursday affirmed their intentions to deepen the two countries’ strategic cooperation with the aim of achieving common goals, including realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. After their meeting in New Delhi, the two leaders released a joint statement voicing “grave concerns” over the use of economic coercion, likely with China in mind. The prime ministers recognized that the current international situation “calls for both countries to further promote tangible cooperation” in economic security, the statement said, adding, “They committed to deepening economic security cooperation and developing key initiatives to support a resilient and prosperous region.” As leading democracies and major economies in the world, Japan and India “have a duty to shape and uphold an international order” that is “free, open and based on the rule of law,” it also said. Takaichi, on a three-day visit to India from Wednesday, said in a joint press conference after the bilateral summit that she aims to elevate Japan-India relations to a higher level, while Modi called for achieving the two countries’ shared ambition of global progress. They also announced documents on about 120 projects on cooperation between Japanese and Indian companies, including around 2 trillion yen of investments. Takaichi and Modi agreed to promote collaboration regarding defense equipment as part of the efforts to deepen strategic cooperation, and to hold a two-plus-two meeting of the two nations’ foreign and defense ministers by the end of the year. The two leaders also agreed to work together on bolstering supply chains for critical goods and adopted a joint declaration calling for economic security cooperation. The declaration stressed the two countries’ intentions to elevate their economic security partnership to “a new level” by providing strategic and practical guidance, noting that the partnership is “underpinned by mutual trust, shared values and aligned interests.” It cited five priority areas of cooperation–semiconductors, critical minerals, information and communication technology, clean energy and pharmaceuticals. Takaichi and Modi decided to launch a bilateral dialogue on strengthening India’s oil stockpiling system. Japan will support India’s bid to become a member of the International Energy Agency. Tokyo will also help India establish some 1,000 biogas plants to produce energy from cow dung. The two leaders also confirmed that Japan and India will work together on advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, including joint research and development on large language models, and they published a joint document on cooperation in the AI sector. The document said that Takaichi and Modi agreed to advance cooperation to build “a safe, secure, trustworthy, inclusive, human-centric, sustainable, accountable and innovation-oriented AI ecosystem.” They also reaffirmed the importance of promoting “an international governance framework” centered on safe, secure, trustworthy, robust and inclusive AI that supports responsible innovation, according to the document. The summit, which comprised two parts, a small-group session and an expanded meeting, lasted about 90 minutes. Takaichi and Modi also had lunch together. The Japanese leader’s visit to India is part of so-called shuttle diplomacy, or reciprocal visits by the two countries’ leaders. It is Takaichi’s first trip to the South Asian nation since she took office last October. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]