India, Japan unveil economic security cooperation

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi participated in the 16th India-Japan Annual Summit in New Delhi on July 2.

• This was the first official visit of PM Takaichi to India. 

• This visit follows PM Modi’s visit to Tokyo in August 2025 for the 15th India-Japan Annual Summit and reflects the shared commitment of the two countries to further enhance India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership.

Highlights of the 16th India-Japan Annual Summit:

Building upon the success of the 15th India-Japan Annual Summit, the leaders concurred on advancing cooperation based on three priority areas:

i) Defence and security cooperation.

ii) Economic partnership including economic security, energy resilience, technology, and innovation.

iii) People-to-people exchanges.

• They adopted the India-Japan Joint Declaration on Economic Security Cooperation to further promote project-based collaboration in the key sectors of semiconductors, critical minerals, information and communication technology, clean energy and pharmaceuticals.

• The two PMs underscored the urgency of deepening India-Japan cooperation on energy security. They welcomed the adoption of the Joint Statement on Energy Resilience. It aims to strengthen cooperation in strategic stockpiling and reserve mechanisms for crude oil and petroleum products. Promotes collaboration in joint investments across the maritime energy transport value chain.

• They appreciated the launch of the India-Japan Cooperative Biogas for Growth Initiative (CBG Initiative) as a new project of India-Japan cooperation to scale up biogas production in light of India’s target of establishing 1,000 biogas plants and organic fertilizer plants across India.

Other key outcomes:

1) India-Japan Joint Statement on Cooperation in the Field of Artificial Intelligence: Elevates the India-Japan relationship to a strategic research and development partnership in the AI domain. Building on the India-Japan AI Initiative, the joint statement provides a roadmap for greater cooperation across the entire AI technology stack in pursuit of the shared vision of safe, secure, trusted, inclusive, and human-centric AI.

2) Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of India-Japan Diplomatic Relations: Outlines a series of commemorative events to celebrate 2027, the 75th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations, as the India-Japan Year of Shared Horizons.

3) Memorandum of Cooperation in the Field of Batteries: Promotes cooperation in battery-related projects and expands business opportunities with an aim of building a trusted, resilient and sustainable battery supply chain.

4) Memorandum of Cooperation in the Field of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Sector: Strengthens pharma supply chains, including in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and Key Starting Materials (KSMs), through promotion of bilateral investment and business linkages, technical collaboration and industry-academia collaboration.

5) Memorandum of Cooperation in the Field of Geology and Mineral Exploration: Strengthens cooperation in upstream critical minerals exploration through exchange of technical expertise.

6) Memorandum of Cooperation between IndiaAI Mission and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan: Promotes institutional cooperation between IndiaAI Mission and Japan’s GENIAC initiative – through B2B matchmaking, webinars on AI policies and challenges and support for joint projects through access to computing resources.

7) Memorandum of Cooperation on Next Generation Mobility Partnership (NGMP): The NGMP would accelerate private sector-led cooperation and investment in mobility sectors including rail, automotive and road infrastructure, aviation, shipbuilding and ports, logistics, and urban development, positioning India as a hub for “Make in India for the World” exports to third countries.

8) MoU between India’s Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) and RIKEN, Japan: Establishes a framework for academic, translational research and startup oriented innovation in deep-tech and life sciences, covering healthcare, agriculture and environment.

9) MoU between National Center for Biological Sciences-Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and RIKEN, Japan: Creates a framework for cooperation in basic biological and neuroscience research between the two leading research institutions.

10) MoU between IIT Bombay, BharatGen Technology Foundation and National Institute of Informatics, Japan: It boosts collaboration on large language models (LLMs), with a focus on developing LLMs for enhanced scientific reasoning, through joint research exchanges.

11) MoU between SarvamAI and Preferred Network on LLM Development: Creates a framework for cooperation across the full AI technology stack, including foundation models.

12) MoU Between National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC): Promotes cooperation in National Internet Registry operations, IPv6 adoption, internet security improvements, capacity building, student/professional exchanges and exchange of views on internet governance at regional and global forums.

12) Exchange of Letters Between International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) and Financial Services Agency, Japan (JFSA): Establishes a framework for cooperation in development, regulation and supervision of financial services as well as information exchange on financial-market trends and best practices, particularly in FinTech and RegTech.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)