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Published : 26 Aug 2025, 07:58 PM
The leaders of India and Japan want to further their cooperation on issues such as critical minerals under the framework of the Quad group, New Delhi said on Tuesday before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan.
Ahead of the August 29-30 trip, Vikram Misri, India's foreign secretary, told a press conference that India attaches a high value to the Quad group, seen as a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific, despite strained ties with fellow member the United States.
President Donald Trump’s decision to impose additional tariffs of up to 50% on imports from India, mainly in response to its purchases of Russian oil and resistance to opening up the agricultural sector, has undermined decades of diplomatic progress between the two countries.
That, in turn, has raised doubts about India's plans to host a summit of the leaders of Quad countries, which also include Australia, later this year. The last such gathering was held in the US in September 2024.
Misri said India is still in talks with the US over the tariffs and keen to continue expanding its cooperation with the Quad countries.
"The Quad is indeed an important platform for working on and promoting peace, stability, prosperity and development in the Indo-Pacific region," Misri said.
He said that one of the Quad's goals is cooperation on critical minerals, which he called a priority for both India and Japan.
"There's an initiative with regard to critical minerals that has been discussed recently overall with regard to how to make supply chains more resilient and also infrastructure development," he said, without giving details.
Reuters reported in June that India had asked a state-run miner to suspend a 13-year-old agreement on the export of rare earths to Japan and to safeguard supplies for domestic needs, to cut India's dependence on China.
Export volumes are not high and analysts say India lacks wide-scale technology and infrastructure to mine or process rare earths - a group of 17 elements used in products from lasers and military equipment to the magnets found in electric vehicles, wind turbines and consumer electronics.
During his eighth trip to Japan since taking office in 2014, Modi and his counterpart Shigeru Ishiba could launch several new initiatives to respond to "emerging opportunities and challenges", Misri said, without giving specifics.
Modi on Tuesday attended an event in Gujarat state to mark the start of EV production by Japan's Suzuki Motor 7269.T, which also announced an investment of about $8 billion in India.
From Japan, Modi will fly to the Chinese port city of Tianjin for the summit of the regional security bloc Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, his first visit to China in more than seven years.
