India, Japan Forge USD68B Decade-Long Cooperation

(MENAFN) India and Japan have launched an ambitious decade-long cooperation framework as New Delhi confronts mounting trade pressures from 50 percent US tariffs on its exports.

During a Tokyo summit Friday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba announced comprehensive bilateral agreements spanning technology, defense, and workforce exchange.

"The India-Japan partnership is rooted in mutual trust, reflects our national priorities, and is shaped by our shared values and beliefs," Modi declared. "Together, we carry a common dream of peace, progress and prosperity of our peoples and for the world."

Japan committed $68 billion in investments across India over the next ten years, while both nations pledged to fortify supply chains and expand collaboration in artificial intelligence, high-speed rail, space technology, and other advanced sectors.

"I believe it is in the interests of both nations to build a mutually beneficial relationship," Ishiba stated. "This involves leveraging each other's strengths, tackling the challenges we face together, and pooling our wisdom to jointly create solutions for the next generation's problems – problems for which no one currently holds the answers."

The partnership includes unprecedented workforce mobility, with both countries targeting exchange of over 500,000 personnel within five years. "The two countries have set an aspirational target of the exchange of more than 500,000 personnel in both directions in the next five years, including 50,000 skilled personnel and potential talents from India to Japan, to create a new wave of people to people exchanges between India and Japan," the Indian Foreign Ministry announced.

Security cooperation received equal emphasis, with leaders affirming that "Japan and India are partners with a mutual stake in each other's progress and prosperity, and that a strong and prosperous India is in the interests of Japan and that a strong and prosperous Japan is in the interests of India."

Modi highlighted shared challenges, noting "similar concerns about terrorism and cyber security," alongside "common interests in defense and maritime security."

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