INDIA'S STRATEGIC AI DIPLOMACY AND THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL COOPERATION

As the world gears up for the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, the event marks more than just another milestone in India's technology roadmap; it represents a significant inflection point in the global AI discourse.

- SHARANPREET KAUR

In a world increasingly divided by geopolitical rivalry, digital trade barriers, and strategic control over emerging technologies, India stands poised to offer a third path; one rooted in trust, inclusion, and cooperation, especially for the Global South.

The summit arrives during a period of rising techno-nationalism and shifting alliances. Export controls on high-performance chips and critical minerals; essential for AI development; have become strategic tools. The United States and China, the two AI superpowers, are leveraging these advantages to shape the global AI landscape, often at the expense of middle powers and smaller nations. AI is undeniably transformative. It influences economies, governance systems, public services, and even international relations. However, its development is resource-intensive, capital-heavy, and concentrated in just a few hands. This concentration creates not only inequality in access but also serious vulnerabilities for countries without direct stakes in the AI value chain. The United States controls the high end of this chain, including compute infrastructure and foundational models like ChatGPT. China, meanwhile, dominates critical mineral processing and has rapidly developed its own generative AI models, such as DeepSeek. Together, they control both the inputs and outputs of the global AI ecosystem, leaving other countries to adapt to externally set rules and limits.