New Delhi is choosing to shape AI governance on its own terms instead of aligning with any single global bloc. (Image Courtesy: X @XHNews)
NEW DELHI: On July 16, representatives from 29 nations gathered in Shanghai to sign the founding charter of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, a new China-headquartered body focused on global AI governance. Among the signatories were fellow BRICS members Russia, Brazil and South Africa. India notably, was absent. Rather than reading this as a diplomatic gap, a closer look suggests India’s decision reflects a deliberate and confident exercise of strategic autonomy.
A Deliberate Choice
New Delhi has historically avoided reactive commentary on multilateral frameworks it does not intend to join, choosing instead to let its actions speak through parallel initiatives. This pattern is consistent with how India handled the Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, both of which it declined for similar reasons rooted in sovereignty and long-term national interest rather than short-term diplomatic pressure.
What makes WAICO’s structure particularly easy for India to decline is its own design. The founding charter leaves core governance questions unresolved, including voting rights, veto powers and technology transfer obligations. Its early funding also depends heavily on the Shanghai municipal government, raising legitimate questions about institutional independence. For a country like India that has built its global credibility on transparent, rules-based multilateral engagement, such as its founding role in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, these structural gaps offer a sound and rational basis to wait and watch rather than commit.
Strategic Independence
Importantly India’s absence from WAICO does not mean disengagement from global AI diplomacy. Quite the opposite, in February this year India hosted the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, bringing together more than 20 heads of state and industry leaders including Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman. The summit produced the New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact, endorsed by 92 countries, built around a developmental philosophy of ensuring AI benefits are shared broadly rather than concentrated among a handful of powers.
(Read more on India’s AI Summit: https://beatsinbrief.com/2026/02/14/india-ai-impact-summit-2026-global-leaders/ )
This reflects a consistent thread in India’s approach, positioning itself as a credible, independent voice for the Global South rather than aligning fully with either major power bloc. As Carnegie Endowment analyst Arindrajit Basu has noted, China’s AI diplomacy increasingly aims to shape global governance norms around state control rather than individual rights, a framework that sits uneasily with India’s own democratic and rights-based approach to technology policy.
Backing Words With Sovereign Infrastructure
What strengthens India’s position considerably is that this independent stance is not merely rhetorical. Through the IndiaAI Mission, the government has built a sovereign compute infrastructure of nearly 38,000 GPUs, with plans to add 20,000 more, offered to Indian startups and researchers at roughly a third of global market rates. Rather than chasing enormous frontier models, India has focused on lean, efficient systems in the 20 to 50 billion parameter range, deploying homegrown models like BharatGen Param2 across agriculture, healthcare and education. This is a genuinely practical model of self-reliance, one built on real infrastructure rather than aspirational statements.
Engaging Where It Serves National Interest
India’s diplomatic calculus becomes even clearer when placed alongside its engagement with the US-led Pax Silica framework. In February India signed onto Pax Silica, focused on supply chain security and advanced processor access, followed by a critical minerals agreement with the United States in May. Yet analysts are careful to note that India’s participation here remains selective and non-binding, centred on commercial and industrial cooperation rather than accepting broader ideological conditions on speech or data governance. As technology policy analyst George Chen has observed, India’s posture reflects alignment with trusted technology partners rather than submission to any single bloc’s terms, whether from Washington or Beijing.
This calibrated approach, engaging selectively with multiple frameworks while avoiding full alignment with any one power. It allows India the flexibility to protect its interests across differing geopolitical contexts without becoming structurally dependent on any single partner.
A Confident Bet on India’s Own Model
There are naturally trade-offs to weigh. Standard-setting influence within WAICO’s growing 29-nation bloc and the capacity-building resources China is offering through training slots and open-weight models, represent real near-term benefits India is foregoing for now. However, India’s own track record suggests it is well positioned to compete on these terms independently, through its own compute infrastructure, its multilingual model ecosystem and its increasingly credible convening power in global forums.
Given India’s history of engaging multilateral bodies strictly on its own terms, joining only when governance structures are transparent and genuinely serve national interest, this measured distance from WAICO looks less like an isolated abstention and more like a continuation of a well-established and increasingly effective foreign policy doctrine. As global AI governance splits along competing lines, India appears intent on proving that a third path, rooted in sovereignty, affordability and democratic values, can hold its own ground.
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