Takaichi calls for inclusive AI governance with Modi in a Deccan Herald report

N ew Delhi: Even as the recent US move to restrict access of foreign nationals to Anthropic's most advanced models triggered questions about tech sovereignty, India and Japan on Thursday launched a strategic partnership in artificial intelligence to jointly develop large language models, compute infrastructure and semiconductor ecosystems, while enabling replication of successful applications across the Indo-Pacific and the Global South. Advertisement The announcement came days after the US briefly restricted foreign nationals' access to Anthropic's most advanced AI models on national security grounds before reversing the decision. Though the restrictions were later lifted, the episode underscored concerns that access to frontier AI capabilities could increasingly be shaped by geopolitical considerations, reinforcing the case for trusted technology partnerships and indigenous capabilities. As the prime ministers of India and Japan - Narendra Modi and Sanae Takaichi - held the 16th bilateral summit in New Delhi on Thursday, they agreed on a strategic AI research and development partnership spanning the entire technology stack - from GPUs, data centres, compute infrastructure and semiconductors to multilingual and open-source foundation models, AI safety, cybersecurity and energy-efficient computing. The two sides also agreed to jointly assess vulnerabilities across the AI stack from an economic security perspective, strengthen resilient supply chains and deepen collaboration with other like-minded countries. The proposed bilateral initiatives include a large language model (LLM) development programme involving IIT Bombay and BharatGen Technology Foundation of India and Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII); collaboration between Indian AI start-up Sarvam and Japan's AI company Preferred Networks across the full technology stack; and a government-backed cooperation framework between IndiaAI and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to support AI companies in both countries. India-Japan Summit: Modi, Takaichi to launch AI cooperation plan, push back against economic coercion The roadmap also includes frontier model evaluation, AI-enabled scientific research and a target of facilitating the movement of 500 highly skilled Indian AI professionals to Japan by 2030 through joint research, internships and industry-academia collaboration. Modi and Takaichi underscored the importance of "promoting an international governance framework that is centred on safe, secure, trustworthy, robust and inclusive AI and supports responsible innovation, while respecting national laws, priorities and contexts". They emphasised that AI governance should be risk-balanced, participatory, informed, proportionate, interoperable and adaptive. A joint statement issued after the summit described AI as an "era-defining general-purpose technology" and linked bilateral cooperation to India's MAHASAGAR vision and Japan's Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy. The two countries also agreed to work with like-minded partners to promote resilient and inclusive AI development across the Indo-Pacific and the Global South. The partnership places particular emphasis on AI infrastructure, with the two countries agreeing to cooperate on AI-ready data centres, GPUs, compute resources, semiconductors and resilient digital connectivity, while jointly advancing multilingual, open-source and domain-specific AI models, efficient inference, green computing, AI safety, cybersecurity, frontier model evaluation and global AI governance through the G20, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and the United Nations. The roadmap also seeks to scale up proven AI applications through the Global AI Impact Commons, enabling countries across the Indo-Pacific and the Global South to adapt successful solutions in healthcare, agriculture, disaster management, education and public services to local languages and national priorities.