India and Japan to deepen economic, strategic ties via pacts and MoUs

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday agreed to deepen economic and strategic ties, unveiling a package of government pacts and private-sector commitments in Tokyo that officials said will significantly expand investment, technology cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. The leaders signed roughly 13 government-level agreements and endorsed scores of company memorandums of understanding during Modi's two-day visit, which concluded before he departed for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China.

Tokyo set an investment target of about 10 trillion yen over the next decade, roughly $68 billion, officials said, while private commitments and project-level MoUs announced at business forums were reported at around $13 billion. Modi and Ishiba also agreed to raise annual Japanese private investment in India to about $6.8 billion a year over the coming decade, up from roughly $2.7 billion a year in the 2010s. Reports on the precise totals varied, with officials and company announcements providing different sums and currency references.

The negotiated package covers wide-ranging cooperation in...