AMN /
Tokyo
— Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen bilateral ties across security, economy, and cultural exchanges during a summit in Tokyo on Friday.
At the outset of the meeting, Prime Minister Ishiba recalled Modi’s first official visit to Japan in 2014, when he and then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid the foundation for the Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership. He praised Modi for advancing the relationship over the past decade and expressed confidence that the partnership will reach “new heights” in the next ten years.
Prime Minister Modi underscored the importance of cooperation between democratic nations with robust economies, highlighting the shared values of India and Japan in promoting stability and growth in the Indo-Pacific.
During the summit, both leaders agreed to establish a new economic security framework focusing on critical areas such as semiconductors, rare earth minerals, artificial intelligence, and pharmaceuticals. They also confirmed plans to revise the 2008 joint declaration on security to include more concrete measures for defense cooperation.
In a major economic announcement, the two sides set a new target of 10 trillion yen (about USD 68 billion) in Japanese private-sector investment in India over the next decade. On the people-to-people front, they committed to expanding exchanges to over 500,000 individuals in five years, including 50,000 Indians traveling to Japan.
At a joint press conference, Ishiba said India, with the world’s largest population and dynamic growth, is poised to transform global innovation, while Japan’s advanced technology can serve as a driver of worldwide progress. He emphasized that closer ties would allow both nations to address generational challenges and create mutually beneficial, complementary relations.