AI as Geopolitics: What the Delhi Summit Signals for Tech-Informed Foreign Policy
Reflections from the India AI Impact Summit 2026, New Delhi
The moment you landed in Delhi, you could understand that something had shifted. Banners for the India AI Impact Summit stretch across the city. Around 20 Heads of State and Government, and roughly 60 ministers and vice ministers, did not travel here for a product showcase. The fourth iteration of this global summit series - following the UK, Seoul, and Paris - has arrived in India, and with it a clear signal for foreign policy: India is framing AI as a strategic state capability embedded in its Digital Public Infrastructure model, with the explicit aim of shaping global and regional governance debates.
Indeed, India is positioning itself here not only as a leader for the global majority, but as a global AI force in its own right: the summit showcased a range of Indian AI innovations, including domestically developed large language models. Notably, India is demonstrating an ability to develop digital public infrastructure and AI systems resource efficiently, showcasing an approach that contrasts with capital-intensive models elsewhere. From a European perspective, this diversification of technological pathways is not only welcome but geopolitically significant.
Gunda Ehmke and Sebastian Blum,
March 2026
Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Data Innovation Lab or the German Federal Foreign Office.
Data Innovation Lab's Contributions: Translating AI into Diplomatic Practice
The Data Innovation Lab facilitated three sessions at the summit, each tackling a different dimension of AI's role in global affairs. We approached AI not only as an abstract policy issue but as a practical foreign policy challenge, one that requirescollaboration, shared standards, and tools.
Our opening session, Empowering Policymakers and Diplomats: Futures Literacy for Tech-Informed Foreign and International Digital Policy, set the tone. Drawing on perspectives from both Germany and India, we explored how policymakers can use futures literacy not as abstract foresight but as a practical tool to engage proactively with emerging technologies. The geopolitical landscape is shifting faster than traditional policy cycles can absorb. Combining economic and statistical foresight with genuine human centricity isn't a luxury; it's a prerequisite for staying relevant.
Our second session, NegotiateCOP – Democratizing Global Climate Negotiations Through Open-Source AI, introduced NegotiateCOP, an open-source AI tool co-developed by the German Government and GIZ, designed to support international negotiators at COP30. Climate negotiations are perhaps the most complex multilateral decision-making process in operation today. The NegotiateCOP tool helps structure and analyze complex negotiation texts, reducing information overload and enabling more evidence-based preparation. The key takeaway was clear: the real asymmetry in multilateral negotiations often lies not in diverging interests, but in unequal analytical capacity. Access, AI design, and governance determine whether such tools foster inclusion and cooperation or reinforce existing structural divides.
Our third session, AI as a Topic and a Tool: The Future of Foreign Policy in an Age of Algorithms, examined how AI is reshaping diplomacy itself. The conclusion was clear: middle powers bring different strengths, and the key is connecting them. AI tools will not replace diplomats, but used well, they are a meaningful complement. Multilateral governance frameworks are not optional; they are the only path that leads to somewhere sustainable.
We also co-organized a joint roundtable with the German Embassy New Delhi focusing on digital sovereignty from an Indo-German perspective. India's push toward "sovereign AI" frames AI as a public infrastructure layer rather than purely a market product. Those framing matters because alignment between German and Indian perspectives on digital sovereignty is not automatic, it is built upon sustained dialogue, institutional exchange, and joint technical experimentation so that sovereignty can be understood relationally. Concrete outcomes of the summit included the announcement of an AI Pact between Germany and India as well as a Leaders Declaration signed by more than 90 countries and international organizations. Both their impact will depend on what follows: shared standards, interoperable infrastructures, cooperation with technology providers, and AI systems that can be deployed in public interest contexts.
Beyond Declarations: The Diplomatic Engagement in Shaping Technological Pathways
Some of the structural governance questions remained largely unaddressed. Beyond innovation narratives, the central issue is institutional responsibility: who shapes the guardrails, who ensures accountability for unintended consequences, and how do we embed safety, transparency, and societal well-being into the design and deployment of AI systems?
Summit declarations are a start. But the real work happens in the infrastructure decisions, the standards, negotiations, and the unglamorous daily choices made by governments, academia, civil society institutions and companies that rarely make headlines. The summit theme Sarvajanа Hitaya, Sarvajanа Sukhaya (welfare for all, happiness for all), is a worthy aspiration. Turning it into reality will require more than ambition. It will require honesty about who is being left out and the political will to do something about it.
For tech-informed foreign policy, the implication is clear: The role of diplomacy is not to claim digital sovereignty in isolation, but to translate different approaches, build trust, and co-develop solutions that reduce technological dependencies while expanding collective agency. This is where foreign policy, technology, and international cooperation increasingly converge, and where initiatives like the Data Innovation Lab seek to operate.