Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary covering the questions on defence and security on the Visit of Prime Minister of Japan to India March 20, 2023 outlined the following as given below-
The two Prime Ministers did speak about very successful meeting of the 2+2, that's the Defense Ministers and Foreign Ministers together meeting, I think it was sometime last year. But when it came to different segments of cooperation in the field of Defense, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi clearly put on the table that one of the areas of a very strong cooperation between India and Japan could be co-innovation, co-design, co-creation, and you know these words are not put across in terms of these discussions as branding words. These are words which have a very strong underpinning, policy underpinning on the Indian side of Atmanirbharatha in the field of Defense and Atmanirbharatha not as an isolationist feature, but Atmanirbharatha which can be built in partnership with other countries and in this case that partnership and that partner particular in this case being Japan.
They did speak about what more India and Japan can do going forward. No specific equipment or platforms were discussed but technology as a wider spectrum, you know, how do you work on technology to move as bilateral partnership.
And exercises I've already spoken about, training definitely, but there is larger field of, you know, research, design, creation and the spectrum of what you can do in the field of defense is actually very huge.
Separately to another question on the issue FS Kwatra said:-
Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Kishida talked about when they spoke about co-innovation, co-design, co-creation, one of the key elements of the conversation also was investment collaboration, investment partnership in this space, and Prime Minister Modi made it very clear to Prime Minister Kishida that when it comes to private sector investments in the field of Defense, when it comes to Foreign Direct Investment in the field of Defense, those two sectors are completely open in India. The Japanese companies are not only invited, but are also encouraged to harness the opportunity and advantages that are inherent in the Indian manufacturing ecosystem, the policy framework liberalization that government of India has undertaken in the field of Defense, link it to Make in India, not just for India but also for the rest of the world, also do it in a manner that the products manufactured here are part of not just regional supply chains but also global supply chains and also which helps in building trusted supply chains in the field of Defense