New Delhi: Amidst turmoil in India-US ties, Japan has set a target of investing $68 billion in India in the next decade, along with announcing a joint declaration on security cooperation and the establishment of an economic security initiative with particular focus on advanced technologies Friday. India and Japan also announced the institutionalisation of the dialogue mechanism between the two National Security Advisers along with greater engagement between the joint staffs of the two militaries.
“We have laid a roadmap for the next decade. At the core of our vision are investment, innovation, economic security, environment, technology, health, mobility, people-to-people exchanges, and state-prefecture partnership. We have set a target of 10 trillion Yen investment from Japan in India over the next ten years,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a joint press statement alongside his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba.
Modi added: “We are launching the Economic Security Cooperation Initiative. Under this, we will move forward with a comprehensive approach in critical and strategic areas. Cooperation in the high technology sector is a priority for both of us. In this context, Digital Partnership 2.0, and AI cooperation initiatives are being taken. Semiconductors and rare earth minerals will be at the top of our agenda.”
The renewal of India-Japan ties comes at a time of global turmoil as the US—for long Tokyo’s strongest partner—has attempted to redraw the international trading regime under President Donald J. Trump. For Tokyo—a manufacturing behemoth—the post World War II global order led to the country growing extremely quickly till the 1990s.
India is facing its own irritants in ties with the US, especially after Trump imposed tariffs of 50 percent on New Delhi for its purchases of Russian oil, as well as “unfair trading practices”. For New Delhi, the US is its largest export market, with its merchandise exports touching $86 billion in the last financial year (2024-2025).
However, despite Trump’s tariffs, the Japanese government has indicated its continued faith in the Indian economy, doubling its investment target from the current $34 billion to $68 billion within the next ten years. India has consistently ranked as the top investment destination for Japanese businesses.
Furthermore, New Delhi and Tokyo have also sought to focus the expansion of their ties into advanced technologies. The two countries launched an India-Japan Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiative, alongside agreements in space, cooperation in defence and security and the economic security initiative.
“Our common interests are linked to defence and maritime security. We have decided to further strengthen mutual cooperation in the field of defence industry and innovation,” said Modi on defence and security ties between the two countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the East Asian nation on Friday and Saturday for the annual India-Japan summit, following which he will travel to China for the Heads of State summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). On Friday he met Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and is set to travel to Sendai Saturday, where Ishiba will host a lunch in honour of the Indian Prime Minister. Modi will also visit a semiconductor factory.
The visit to Japan comes at a delicate moment as ties with the US have hit a new low in recent weeks, while it aims to stabilise ties with China and balance its interests with Moscow. Japan has long been an important investment partner for India, with Tokyo being the fifth largest source of foreign direct investment since 2000. Around $43.2 billion in investment has come from Japan to India between 2000 and December 2024.
While trade ties have grown steadily in recent years, touching $25 billion in the last financial year, a large part of trade is India’s import of goods from Japan which crossed $17 billion in the aforementioned time period.
India and Japan are members of the Quad along with the US and Australia. The Quad featured in the discussions between Modi and Ishiba Friday.
“They (the two Prime Ministers) also reiterated their commitment to advancing cooperation among like-minded countries through multilateral frameworks such as Quad among Australia, India, Japan and the United States, to promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the region. In this regard, they welcomed the evolution of the Quad into a vital and enduring regional grouping, and looked forward to the next Quad Leaders’ Summit hosted by India later this year,” the joint statement by India and Japan said.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, in a special briefing to the media Friday, announced that the new joint declaration on security cooperation now “puts a framework” around this sector of ties.
“An important feature of this particular document is the broad concept of security that it embodies,” said Misri, adding that one of the new features of security ties between India and Japan is the “institutionalised dialogue for the first time between the National Security Advisers (NSAs) of the two countries”.
13 agreements with a view towards the future
The key documents agreed to are the joint vision for the next decade and the joint declaration on security cooperation. The joint declaration on security is the first revision of an earlier joint declaration announced by the two governments 17 years earlier.
The joint vision gives a strategic prioritisation for economic and functional cooperation across eight areas—economic partnership, economic security, mobility, ecological sustainability, technology and innovation, health, people to people ties and state-prefecture engagements over the next decade.
The security cooperation joint vision outlines a comprehensive framework for defence and security cooperation with a view on contemporary security challenges. The other documents signed include an action plan for human resource exchange, a joint crediting mechanism, digital partnership 2.0, mineral resources, joint lunar exploration mission, clean hydrogen and ammonia, cultural exchanges, decentralised waste water management, environment cooperation and two more between the respective foreign service institutes and the promotion of advanced cooperation in science and technology.
“We welcome the agreement reached between ISRO and JAXA for cooperation in the Chandrayaan-5 mission. Our active participation will become a symbol of progress of humanity beyond the boundaries of the earth and in space as well,” said Modi on the implementing agreement signed between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Modi explained that the action plan on the exchange of human resources envisions an “exchange of 5 lakh people from both sides (who) will be encouraged in different fields in the next five years”.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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