India, Japan Vibrant Democracies With Shared Values: Envoy Nagma Mallick

New Delhi:

India and Japan are close global partners, and the political relations of the two nations are characterised by trust, fellow feeling and friendship, said Indian envoy Nagma Mallick at NDTV’s Indo-Japan Strategic Dialogue.

At the event, the Indian Ambassador to Japan said the nation was the fourth-largest foreign investor in India.

“We are both vibrant democracies with shared values. We have strong institutions, and we have active civil societies,” she noted in her video message to the event.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrived in New Delhi Wednesday evening, kicking off a three-day official visit.

The envoy stressed that India and Japan’s “people-to-people” ties are also strong and underpinned by shared links of Buddhist heritage.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited Japan many times for the annual summits. He last visited last year for the 15th summit, and important decisions and initiatives were launched then, which have developed very successfully. Subsequently, as you know, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi became Prime Minister, the first woman Prime Minister of Japan. Our two leaders have met already on the sidelines of the G20 summit in South Africa last year and on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France earlier this year,” she said.

She said during India and Japan’s bilateral engagements, “our two sides will hold discussions to deepen our economic partnership to mutual benefit as well as to strengthen our economic security partnership to ensure that our supply lines are resilient and able to withstand external shocks”.

She said the Japanese PM has brought along a 150-strong business delegation.

“She has tweeted that 150 members of the business community from Japan will be coming for the summit meeting in New Delhi. As you know, the established sectors in which we have long-standing relations in our economy are automotive and, more recently, banking, finance and insurance. But the newer sectors which already have attracted a lot of interest and a lot of investment from Japan are more cutting edge — semiconductors, batteries, large magnets, clean energy like green hydrogen, green ammonia,” she said.

“I think that the business delegation will be announcing at the business summit many, many, many new MOUs that have been signed already post-summit and will be signed during this visit. I will end by saying that I’m confident that the 16th India-Japan Annual Summit will take forward this most important bilateral partnership to greater strength and to mutual benefit,” she added.

Also read: Why PM Modi Called Japan PM Sanae Takaichi His “Younger Sister”

India-Japan Bilateral Meeting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart, Takaichi Sanae, used the bilateral summit to deepen ties in a technology both leaders described as reshaping the global order. The two nations rolled out an ambitious roadmap for cooperation in artificial intelligence, spanning governance and cybersecurity to chip supply chains and talent mobility.

The joint statement, issued in Delhi, framed AI as a defining technology.

New Delhi and Tokyo agreed to align their cooperation with India’s MAHASAGAR outreach initiative and Japan’s revamped Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy, positioning the partnership as part of a broader push to build resilient, growth-oriented economic networks across the region and the wider Global South.

After the summit, PM Modi addressed her as his “younger sister”.

“Your Excellency, and ‘meri chhoti behen‘ (my younger sister), Prime Minister Takaichi, delegates of the two countries, members of the media, Namaskar! Konnichiwa,” he said.

In her address in Japanese, Takaichi acknowledged PM Modi’s remarks.

“The small meeting before and the big meeting…we confirmed that we are on the same page to develop this relationship as brother and sister,” she added.