Symbolising perseverance and good luck, the Daruma doll presented to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his official visit to Japan for the 15th India-Japan Annual Summit (29-30 August 2025) not only reaffirms the longstanding friendship rooted in spiritual affinity and civilisational ties, shared values and interests but also reiterates a common strategic outlook for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
India and Japan share a “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” in the vast Indo-Pacific region, extending from the eastern coast of Africa to the western shores of the Indian Ocean, across Southeast Asia and the South China Sea, to the western Pacific and the coasts of the Americas. The region is of immense importance, with the increasing power projection and politics, abundance of resources, emergence of traditional and non-traditional security threats (piracy and armed robbery, narcotics and human smuggling, IUU fishing, climate change, etc.) and strategic chokepoints and important sea lanes of communications. As a major transit route with over 50% of the global trade and 40% of global oil passing through it, the region’s significance further enhances, as any disruption in the economy and trade has significant negative effects on the nation.
Multifaceted Cooperation: Security, Normative, and Economic Convergence
India and Japan converge on various domains in the Indo-Pacific, ranging from security, defence and strategic convergence to normative, infrastructure and economic convergence. The shared concern over maritime security, freedom of navigation, rule-based order, and growing assertiveness of revisionist powers, particularly the People’s Republic of China, has generated unprecedented levels of cooperation between Indo-Pacific nations, including India and Japan.
Both the nations are part of the Malabar Naval Exercise, with Japan becoming a member in 2015, alongside India and the U.S, thereby enhancing interoperability in the maritime spaces. Both nations also signed the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) in 2020, which allows reciprocal provision of supplies and services between the Indian Armed Forces and the Self-Defence Forces of Japan. Furthermore, both nations have held 2+2 ministerial dialogue since 2019, strengthening dialogue at the level of foreign and defence ministers.
Both nations have shared commitments towards a rules-based order and regional stability, thereby underpinning their normative convergence. They espouse democratic values and adherence to international law (UNCLOS) in the Indo-Pacific. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, formed in 2007 (with PM of Japan Shinzo Abe being the leading force in initiating the framework) and revitalised in 2017, is not merely a strategic convergence but a normative community of democracies, wherein four nations (India, Japan, Australia, and the U.S.) came together based on their shared values of democracy, rule of law, and freedom of navigation and overflight.
Quad countries cooperate on multiple levels, from vaccine diplomacy, infrastructure development and HADR operations to critical and emerging cyber governance and climate resilience. Japan supports the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), which underscores seven pillars for a rules-based regional order. In this, Japan leads the connectivity pillar of IPOI and is a partner in Indian-led initiatives like the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and International Solar Alliance (ISA).
At the economic and infrastructure level, India and Japan collaborate under the Act East Forum (AES), which was launched in 2017 to facilitate capacity-building and connectivity projects in India’s northeast. Along with Australia and Japan, India is also a part of the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI), an agreement that came into force in 2021. This agreement aims to strengthen the supply chains between nations and reduce overdependence on China, the vulnerabilities of which were exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both India and Japan are also working together on digital and green economy initiatives as well, as exemplified by the Japan–India Digital Partnership (JIDP, 2018), Japan-India Start-up Hub (Bengaluru, 2018), Japan–India Clean Energy Partnership (CEP, 2022), and India–Japan Energy Dialogue (revived in 2023), among others.
The 15th Annual Summit: A Forward-Looking Partnership
India and Japan’s relations gained momentum in 2000 with the visit of PM Yoshiro Mori to India, with the establishment of the “Global Partnership between India and Japan”. In 2006, with the visit of Indian PM Manmohan Singh to Japan, the India-Japan relationship was elevated to “Global and Strategic Partnership”, which was further elevated to “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” in 2014 with the visit of PM Modi to Japan. In 2015, it was decided to transform the India-Japan “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” into a forward-looking, broad-based and action-oriented cooperation and coordination, which showcases a wider convergence of their long-term strategic goals.
The 15th India-Japan Annual Summit Joint Statement titled “Partnership for Security of our Next Generation” made strong references to anchor the stability of the Indo-Pacific and to uphold the principles of freedom, equality, openness, peace, resilience and prosperity in the region.
In the statement both leaders expressed commitment to a “Joint Vision for the Next Decade” founded on eight pillars such as economy, economic security, mobility, environment, technology and innovation, health, people-to-people ties and state-prefecture engagement; a “Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation”, particularly welcoming Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s (JMSDF) participation in MILAN naval exercise and Tarang Shakti air exercises; and an “Action Plan for Human Resource Exchange and Cooperation” in the Indo-Pacific region.
The statement further demonstrated concerns of unilateral actions that endanger the freedom of navigation and overflight in the East and South China Sea. It strongly advocated for resolving maritime disputes in accordance with international laws, particularly the UNCLOS. The statement reiterated close cooperation between Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) and India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI). It laid strong support to ASEAN centrality and ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP). The framework of the Quadrilateral Grouping was also reaffirmed in promoting peace and stability in the region.
The statement also emphasised on connectivity and development prospects in the Indo-Pacific, like the launching of Japan-India Cooperation for Sustainable Economic Development in Africa for promoting industrial concentration in India to establish an industrial hub for trade and investment with Africa and the announcement of the Economic Region Initiative of Indian Ocean-Africa by Japan at the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9).
Conclusion
The Summit underscored the growing strategic partnership and cooperation between India and Japan, wherein the stability of the Indo-Pacific region is one of the central pillars. The “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” status converged the two nations across multiple domains, from security, defence and strategic convergence to normative, economic and infrastructure convergence.
The summit reaffirmed their intention to further strengthen their endeavours to enhance hard, soft and people-to-people connectivity and thus, unleash the great potential of this region. Their adherence to a rules-based order in the region showcases their joint commitment to combating maritime security threats and to harnessing peace and prosperity in the region. Together, India and Japan are not merely responding to disruptions but proactively crafting a multipolar and resilient Indo-Pacific order with a greater responsibility to anchor peace and stability of the region.
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