New Delhi, Jan 16 (.) The foreign ministers of India and Japan launched the AI Dialogue during talks today to push bilateral engagement in this key sector, and also decided to convene a Joint Working Group on critical minerals to advance collaboration in the field of rare earths.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi, who is on a three-day visit to India, held talks today as part of the 18th India-Japan Strategic Dialogue.
The Japanese FM also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As part of the Strategic Dialogue, both the ministers reviewed the multifaceted bilateral relationship and discussed supply chain resilience in critical sectors, investment, trade, technology, innovation, defence, people-to-people exchanges and also cultural ties.
Both leaders underlined the importance of further strengthening the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership in keeping with the outcomes of the 15th annual summit that was held in Japan last year when PM Modi travelled there for the summit.
The initiative on Artificial Intelligence was announced by the two prime ministers during the summit last year, and today the two foreign ministers launched the AI Dialogue, “giving a coherent push to bilateral cooperation between the two countries in this particular sector on economic security”, said the MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
“AI is an important issue of engagement between the two countries not just for our economies but for the economies of the world at large,” he said. ⁠The AI Dialogue is to be led by their Foreign Ministries at the Joint Secretary-DG level.
The two sides also decided to convene the Joint Working Group on Critical Minerals in early 2026 to advance collaboration in the field of rare earths and critical minerals, the MEA spokesperson said.
The two ministers also look forward to celebrating 2027, when the two countries complete 75 years of their bilateral relationship. “There was also some conversation around cricket. He presented a jersey of the Japanese cricket team to the foreign minister. So overall a very good visit and the visit still continues,” the spokesperson added.
Under the Economic Security Initiative, both sides are to 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 the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister will be held in the first half of 2026.
Motegi’s visit to India is his first, and is part of a nine-day visit to the Middle East and Asia, which began on Saturday (Jan 10), taking him to Israel, Palestine, Qatar and the Philippines, with the last destination being New Delhi.
The visit was scheduled after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi in November 2025, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in South Africa.
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