PM Modi concludes Japan visit, heads to China for SCO summit

Tokyo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for China to attend the SCO summit after wrapping up a two-day visit to Japan.

During his visit, India and Japan firmed up 13 key agreements and declarations and announced the launch of several transformative initiatives.

"This visit to Japan will be remembered for the productive outcomes which will benefit the people of our nations. I thank PM Ishiba, the Japanese people and the Government for their warmth," the prime minister said in an X post.

The new measures to further expand the India-Japan special strategic and global partnership were unveiled following summit talks between Prime Minister Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba.

Japan set an investment target of 10 trillion yen (approximately Rs 60,000 crores) in India over a decade and the two sides sealed a raft of big-ticket pacts, including a framework for defence ties and a 10-year roadmap to largely boost economic partnership.

Other agreements signed include an economic security architecture to promote supply chain resilience in strategic sectors such as semiconductors, clean energy, telecom, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals and new and emerging technologies.

The prime minister, who landed in Tokyo on Friday, said India-Japan cooperation is crucial for global peace and stability, and both sides have laid a strong foundation for a "new and golden chapter" in the partnership.

The 10-year roadmap focuses on significantly expanding overall economic ties. It comprised several key pillars for boosting engagement that included economic security, mobility, ecological sustainability, technology and innovation, health, people-to-people exchanges and engagements between Indian states and Japanese prefectures.

The two sides also signed an implementing arrangement for the Chandrayaan-5 mission, a joint exploration of the polar region of the moon by the space agencies of the two countries.

On Saturday, Modi met governors of 16 Japanese prefectures in Tokyo and called for strengthening state-prefecture cooperation under the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership.

Later, he also travelled with Ishiba to Sendai in the Japanese prefecture of Miyagi to visit a semiconductor plant.

During his two-day visit to China, Modi will attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tianjin on August 31 and September 1.

The summit of the 10-member bloc is regarded as significant and most consequential from the point of view of India-China relations in the current context of a sudden downturn in India-US ties after Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports.

This will be Modi’s first visit to China in seven years.