After restricting China's access to chip-making tools, Japan now explores critical tech cooperation with India

Kishida is likely to visit New Delhi again on September 9 and 10 to attend the G20 summit to be hosted by PM Modi

Tokyo and New Delhi are exploring ways to step up bilateral cooperation in critical technologies, even as Beijing decried Japan’s move to restrict the export of chip-making tools required for the semiconductor industry in China.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, on Thursday discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in critical technologies.

New Delhi and Tokyo discussed critical technology cooperation even as Japan of late aligned its policies with the United States to restrict the export of chip-making tools and technology to China. The move is likely to make it difficult for the semiconductor industry of China to import tools and technology from Japan.

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The US and other western nations are worried about the possible misuse of the chip-making tools for manufacturing advanced weapon systems in China.

“Our talks covered enhancing political, defence and security, economic and commercial, connectivity, critical technology and people to people domains,” Jaishankar tweeted after his meeting with Hayashi. “Our convergence is visible in a range of activities and commitments, from East Asia and ASEAN to South Asia and East Africa.”

New Delhi has signalled its intent to step up the India-Japan critical technology cooperation. This comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with President Joe Biden in Washington DC saw the US starting to act on its promise to lift restrictions on sharing advanced technologies with India.

Jaishankar and Hayashi also discussed the situation in Indo-Pacific and reviewed cooperation in the Quad, the coalition India and Japan forged with Australia and the United States to counter China’s moves to expand its geopolitical influence across the region.

The two ministers affirmed that they would continue to advance cooperation in the field of defence and security, according to Tokyo’s diplomatic mission in New Delhi.

The ministers concurred that the Japanese and Indian public and private sectors would work together toward the target of five trillion yen in public-private investment and loans to India over the next five years, a press release issued by the Embassy of Japan in New Delhi stated. This goal was set by the prime ministers of the two nations.

Hayashi requested Jaishankar for cooperation to improve the investment environment and for the early establishment of a Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM).

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had visited New Delhi on March 20 and unveiled a new plan to promote “a free and open Indo-Pacific”. He articulated the new plan while delivering a lecture at the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi on Monday – more than one-and-a-half decades after one of his predecessors, Shinzo Abe, had addressed the Parliament of India and laid the foundation of the concept of Indo-Pacific and mooted an “Arc of Democracy” to contain the belligerence of China. He had pledged $75 billion in public and private investments in the Indo-Pacific nations to counter the hegemonic aspirations of China.

Kishida is likely to visit New Delhi again on September 9 and 10 to attend the G20 summit to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi is also likely to host Kishida, Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese again in 2024 for a summit of the leaders of the Quad in New Delhi