From defense to technology, a new chapter of India-Japan partnership begins! : PM Modi!

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday announced that India and Japan have signed an agreement on the first co-development project in the defense sector. He said that this is an important step to give a new height to the strategic relations between the two countries.

In a joint press conference held with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at Hyderabad House after the annual India-Japan Annual Summit, Prime Minister Modi said that Japan has always played an important role in India’s development journey.

Describing the Japanese Prime Minister as his “younger sister”, he said that his visit is the beginning of a new chapter of India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership.

Prime Minister Modi said, “The confluence of Japan’s precision technology and India’s software capability will give new momentum and new strength to the global development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In the defense sector too, today an agreement has been signed on the first joint development project between India and Japan.”

Prime Minister Modi welcomed the first woman Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, saying that this is her first official visit to India.

He said, “Prime Minister Takaichi is the first woman Prime Minister of Japan. She is a visionary and popular leader and hails from Nara Prefecture of Japan, a major center of the shared Buddhist heritage of India and Japan.”

He reminded that in the recently held G7 Summit, he had said that in this era of global turmoil, mutual trust is the biggest strategic asset and India-Japan relations fully meet this criterion.

Prime Minister Modi said that an independent, prosperous and rule-based Indo-Pacific is a common priority of both the countries.

He said India and Japan are the two largest democratic and market-based economies in Asia and both the countries have launched several new initiatives that will lay a strong foundation for stability and prosperity in the entire region.

Prime Minister Modi said that Japan has made a significant contribution to India’s development journey in the last several decades in automobile, electronics and many other sectors. This cooperation has created a strong foundation of friendship and trust between the two countries.

He said that with this visit of Prime Minister Takaichi, the special strategic partnership of the two countries is entering a new phase.

Prime Minister Modi said that both the countries have prepared a joint roadmap for economic security, under which the supply chain in strategic sectors like semiconductor, quantum technology and advanced materials will be strengthened. He said that many important decisions have also been taken in the field of energy security.

Prime Minister Modi said that both the countries have also started the India-Japan Biogas Initiative.

Under this initiative, 1,000 biogas and organic fertilizer plants will be set up in India, which will further strengthen the ‘Gobardhan’ initiative of the Central Government and create new opportunities for sustainable development, prosperity and employment in rural areas.