India and Japan Launch AI Cooperation Initiative, Modi Invites Ishiba for AI Summit

Tokyo: India and Japan on Friday unveiled a landmark AI Cooperation Initiative to strengthen collaboration in artificial intelligence, with a focus on Large Language Models (LLMs), training, capacity building, and support for businesses and startups in building a secure and trustworthy AI ecosystem.

The announcement came after the 15th India-Japan Annual Summit in Tokyo, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Digital Partnership 2.0.

The new initiative will facilitate cooperation on AI through industry–academia exchanges, joint research projects, and development of data centres in India. Prime Minister Modi also invited Ishiba to attend the AI Impact Summit, to be hosted by India in February 2026.

The leaders also underscored support for startups, committing to promote India-Japan collaboration through the Japan-India Startup Support Initiative (JISSI).

Other major outcomes from the summit included:

• A pact to enhance bilateral collaboration in digital public infrastructure, digital talent development, and joint R&D in AI, IoT, and semiconductors.

• Launch of the Next-Generation Mobility Partnership to foster government-to-government (G2G) and business-to-business (B2B) ties in railways, aviation, shipping, ports, and logistics, with a strong emphasis on Make-in-India.

• An action plan for two-way exchange of 500,000 people between India and Japan over five years, including 50,000 skilled and semi-skilled Indian workers moving to Japan.

• Introduction of the Sustainable Fuel Initiative to boost energy security, farmer incomes, and R&D in biofuels and biogas.

• Creation of the India-Japan Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Forum to deepen ties between SMEs, the growth engines of both nations.

• Establishment of an Economic Security Initiative to strengthen supply chain resilience in critical sectors such as semiconductors, clean energy, telecom, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, and emerging technologies.

• Agreement on high-level exchanges between Indian states and Japanese prefectures, with three visits in each direction to be facilitated by the foreign ministries.

• Signing of an MoU between the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service and Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to encourage exchanges among diplomats, academics, and researchers in foreign policy.

The summit underlined India and Japan’s shared commitment to advancing digital innovation, economic security, and people-to-people connections while reinforcing their strategic partnership.

With inputs from IANS