India and Japan on Friday agreed to ramp up cooperation in areas of trade, critical minerals, defence and high technologies with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar saying that the partnership between the two sides holds immense potential to de-risk the global economy. A meeting between Jaishankar and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi saw both sides agreeing to set up a joint working group on critical minerals and a dialogue mechanism on artificial intelligence. The Japanese foreign minister met Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his talks with Jaishankar.
“Our special strategic and global partnership is on an upward trajectory and holds immense potential for shaping the world order and de-risking the international economy,” Jaishankar said on social media after the 18th India-Japan strategic dialogue. He said the discussions on boosting cooperation in areas of economy supply chain, critical minerals, technology and people-to-people connections were reflective of “shared interests” between the two sides. “Also had a useful exchange of perspectives on Indo-Pacific and regional and global developments,” he said.
Toshihiro Kitamura, a spokesperson at the Japan foreign ministry said Jaishankar and Motegi deliberated extensively on various global issues to align their views and discussed the importance of Quad. Kitamura said extensive deliberations were held on ensuring economic security in view of the current geopolitical developments, adding the two sides agreed to set up a joint working group on critical minerals. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Jaishankar and Motegi underlined the importance of further strengthening the India-Japan special strategic and global partnership.
