India and Japan on Thursday agreed to cooperate for “energy resilience”, especially in stockpiling fuel in the light of the West Asia crisis that crippled the petroleum supply chain to both countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed his visiting Japanese counterpart, Sanae Takaichi, as a “younger sister” at their joint media interaction, evoking appreciation from her.
“In today’s era of uncertainty, both India and Japan fully understand the importance of economic and energy security. With this in mind, we have prepared a joint road map for economic security today,” Modi said.
“Through this, we will strengthen supply chain resilience in strategic sectors such as semiconductors, quantum technology, and advanced materials.”
Modi listed the joint initiatives, including biogas and organic fertiliser plants, and “cooperation in batteries, green hydrogen, and nuclear energy”.
He added: “To tackle situations like oil shocks, we have also launched a significant initiative on energy resilience today. Furthermore, our cooperation in batteries, green hydrogen, and nuclear energy will make a vital contribution to the world’s clean energy future.”
Takaichi said: “You called me a beautiful younger sister, Prime Minister Modi.... At the small meeting before the big meeting, we confirmed that we are on the same page and developed this relationship as brother and sister.
“Japan and India must leverage our respective strengths to become stronger and more prosperous together in the midst of international fears and disarray.”
The three points “at the centre of cooperation”, Takaichi said, are to deepen strategic cooperation through the updated Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy — an initiative that involves the US in maritime security, cooperation in economic security and energy security, and the co-creation of economic growth through investment and innovation collaboration.
The Japanese Premier said: “As both countries face challenges, such as economic weaponisation and non-market practices, we need to urgently build resilience in our critical minerals supply chains.
“Further, in the area of energy security impacted by the Middle East situation, both Japan and India bear the responsibility to provide for region-wide energy security.… That is why we have released a document for the public and private sectors, a joint statement to engage in concrete action for economic security cooperation.”
“Under the POWERR Asia initiative (a $10-billion Japan-led framework designed to safeguard energy and supply chain security across Asia), we will launch a bilateral dialogue to strengthen India’s petroleum stockpiling system. Japan also supports India’s membership of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).”
Neither leader took questions from the media.
The joint statement made an apparent allusion to China’s curbs on the exports of critical minerals and rare earths, key to the manufacture of weapons systems, semiconductors, and clean energy devices.
“They (the Prime Ministers) reiterated their grave concerns over the use of economic coercion and non-market policies and practices, including arbitrary export restrictions that may lead to supply chain disruptions, particularly in critical minerals and critical industrial sectors, and price manipulation,” the joint statement said.
“They underscored the importance of diversified, resilient and reliable global supply chains, a fair competitive global environment, and the need to avoid reliance on any one country. They reaffirmed their commitment to promote and protect key technologies while respecting their regulations and related rules.”
Foreign secretary Vikram Misri told reporters: “Today’s engagements have yielded several substantial outcomes, broadly falling under three crucial areas.... These areas are economic security, energy resilience, and technology and innovation.
“The economic declaration gives practical guidance to further strengthen project-based economic security cooperation.... And we’ve agreed to cooperate on strategic stockpiling and reserve mechanisms for crude oil and petroleum products, as well as exploring joint investments in maritime energy transport value chains.
“And today, there was discussion between the two leaders on defence-related issues as well. And there was agreement that we could look at cooperation in multiple areas. In fact, Prime Minister Modi suggested that this cooperation could span the entire spectrum from designing to production, manufacturing.
“Insofar as specific platforms are concerned, you would have noticed the leaders marking the progress on the major project that is under way right now between the two countries, which is the Unicorn project, which is a naval radio antenna-related project. In addition, there was reference to cooperation across land, air, naval systems, unmanned vehicles, and systems of various kinds.”
On AI, Misri said: “IIT Bombay’s BharatGen, for instance, and Japan’s National Institute of Informatics have signed an MOU focusing on multilingual scientific LLMs and enhanced scientific reasoning.
“Similarly, India’s Sarvam AI and Japan’s preferred networks have established a framework for cooperation across the full AI technology stack, including foundational models.
“Finally, looking ahead to 2027, which marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between our two countries, the two sides have agreed to a list of commemorative outcomes and events with a strong focus on youth to celebrate this milestone in a befitting manner.”
The Prime Minister’s Office will organise a Japan week exclusively for Japanese companies to address the issues they face here.