NEW DELHI: India and Japan on Saturday signed two key agreements which will pave the way for sale of Japanese defence equipment to India, including the much sought US 2 amphibian aircraft, as both countries vowed deeper military cooperation especially in the maritime sphere.

India also announced that Japan will be a partner in Malabar Naval Exercises, taking it from a bilateral naval exercise with US to a trilateral level on a permanent basis.

Highlighting the strategic importance of the bilateral ties, Japan asserted that a strong India is in the interest of Japan and a strong Japan was in the interest of India.

It also said that maintenance of the peace and tranquility in the Indo-Pacific waters was a shared goal of the two countries.

The two sides inked key defence agreements - one concerning the Transfer of Defence Equipment and Technology and another related to Security Measures for Protection of Classified Military Information.

Terming defence pacts as "decisive steps in our security cooperation", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said they will deepen the defence relations and promote defence manufacturing in India.

"This builds on our decision to expand staff talks to all three wings of the Armed Forces and make Japan a partner in Malabar Naval Exercises," he added.

The two leaders also issued a joint statement on 'India and Japan Vision 2025: Special Strategic and Global Partnership Working Together for Peace and Prosperity of the Indo-Pacific Region and the World'.

The statement said that the two Prime Ministers view that imperatives of a stronger bilateral strategic partnership require deep and broad-based cooperation and concrete actions in defence, security.

It said that the defence agreements signed further strengthens the foundation of "deep strategic ties".

Taking note of the Agreements, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to continue discussions to deepen the bilateral defence relationship including through two-way collaboration and technology cooperation, co-development and co-production.

"The two Prime Ministers expressed their intention to explore potential future projects on defence equipment and technology cooperation such as US-2 amphibian aircraft," the statement said.

The Indian Navy is interested in acquiring the aircraft which will be a boost to its capacity. The talks are already on between the two sides and sources indicated that the project could be a 'Make in India' initiative with technology transfer from Japan.