India, Japan agree to enhance bilateral cooperation; aim to challenge China

New Delhi: India and Japan on Friday agreed to enhance mutual cooperation in areas such as trade, critical minerals, defense, and high technology. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the partnership between the two sides has immense potential to mitigate risks facing the global economy.

What happened during the meeting?

Jaishankar made these remarks after participating in the 18th India-Japan Strategic Dialogue with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi here. During the talks, both sides agreed to establish a joint working group on critical minerals and a dialogue mechanism on artificial intelligence (AI). Motegi met Prime Minister Narendra Modi before his talks with Jaishankar.

What did Jaishankar say?

"Our Special Strategic and Global Partnership is steadily progressing and has immense potential to shape the world order and mitigate risks facing the international economy," Jaishankar said in a social media post. 

He said the discussions on enhancing cooperation in areas such as supply chains, critical minerals, technology, and people-to-people ties reflect the shared interests between the two sides. 

"There was also a useful exchange of views on the Indo-Pacific region and regional and global developments," Jaishankar said.

What did Japan's Foreign Ministry say?

Japan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Toshihiro Kitamura said that Jaishankar and Motegi discussed various global issues in detail to converge their views and emphasized the importance of the QUAD.

Kitamura said that extensive discussions were held on ensuring economic security in light of current geopolitical developments, and both sides agreed to establish a joint working group on critical minerals.

What is India’s position on the issue?

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that Jaishankar and Motegi emphasized the importance of further strengthening the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan. He said that the two ministers launched an AI dialogue to give new impetus to bilateral cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence.
According to Jaiswal, India and Japan have also decided to establish a joint working group on critical minerals under the Economic Security Initiative to enhance cooperation in the field of rare minerals.

In his opening remarks at the talks, Jaishankar said that India's vision for the Indo-Pacific region aligns with Japan's vision of a "free and open Indo-Pacific."

"We are leading democracies, we are the world's leading economies, and today we have not only an opportunity, but also an obligation and a duty to shape the global order," he said.

"And in this current era of global uncertainty, it is even more important that we work together towards shared strategic goals," Jaishankar added.

He said that economic security has become very important in the current global scenario.

"I think India and Japan attach great importance to this. It is very important for both countries to mitigate the risks facing the economies of both countries and the international economy," Jaishankar said.

“So in our talks today we will discuss cooperation in areas such as more resilient supply chains, critical minerals, energy, health and maritime security.”