At the 18th India-Japan strategic dialogue that took place here on Friday between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi, the two sides also reviewed projects that are under consideration as part of deepening bilateral defence cooperation.
Under the India-Japan economic security initiative, both sides will convene the private sector dialogue to enhance public-private cooperation in the field of economic security. The second round of the ‘Economic Security Dialogue’ led by India’s Foreign Secretary and Japanese Vice Minister for foreign affairs will be held in the first half of 2026.
In his address at the meeting, Jaishankar said as the leading democracies and major economies of the world, India and Japan not just have an opportunity “but also an obligation, a duty to shape the global order, and in the current uncertain global situation, it’s even more important that we work closely towards shared strategic goals”.
“Economic security today is particularly paramount. I think both our countries attach enormous importance to it, and how to de-risk our own economies, and how to de-risk the international economy are both very important,” Jaishankar said.
Later in the day, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the India-Japan ‘AI Dialogue’, agreed by the two foreign ministers, will be an effort to “give a coherent push to our engagement in AI”.
It will be held at the joint secretary-director general level, and is a new initiative. The AI initiative, agreed to during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan in August 2025, will advance collaboration in large language models, training, capacity building, and support for businesses and start-ups to foster a trustworthy AI ecosystem.
??To advance cooperation in rare earth elements and critical minerals, both sides have also decided to convene the JWG on critical minerals in early 2026. India and Japan agreed to set up the JWG on critical minerals during the PM’s visit to Tokyo last year. Japan and India are working together to bolster critical minerals supply chains through partnership in the Mineral Security Partnership and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and Quad Critical Minerals Initiatives. The two countries signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of mineral resources in August 2025.
Japan and India deepened their collaboration through the Toyota Tsusho’s rare earth refining project in Andhra Pradesh which aims to establish a stable supply chain for rare earth materials.
At Friday’s meeting, Jaishankar underlined that over the last two decades, India and Japan have been successful in transforming the relationship from what was primarily an economic relationship into one that is broad, comprehensive and strategic in its focus.
“We attach the highest priority to working with Japan in international forums and immediately in Quad, United Nations, G4 membership, and the G20 come to mind,” he said, adding that it was a Japanese PM who in his address to the Indian Parliament laid the ground for the emergence of the Indo-Pacific as a political, economic and strategic construct.
He said India’s vision for the Indo-Pacific aligns closely with Japan’s ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ outlook.
Apart from discussing resilient supply chains, and critical minerals, the two ministers also talked about how to address energy, health, and maritime security.
 "S Jaishankar, Jaishankar, Toshimitsu Motegi")