Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba agreed Friday to boost trade and cooperation between their two countries in the next decade.
The agreement included Japan agreeing to a $68 billion investment in India, along with a plan to increase mutual personnel exchanges between the two nations to 500,000 within five years, including 50,000 "skilled personnel and potential talents from India to Japan."
"The two prime ministers came to a common understanding that the India-Japan partnership stands at an important juncture and that it is imperative to develop a mutually complementary relationship by building upon our accomplishments and to leverage our respective strengths as well as excellent ties to pursue security and prosperity for the next generations," the leaders wrote in a joint statement.
The joint statement further expressed "serious concern" by both prime ministers about Chinese military activities in the East China Sea and the South China Sea as they announced a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, which they said "elevates our defense and security ties to the next level, taking into account the contemporary geopolitical realities and security configurations in the region."
