India has extended a formal invitation to China to join its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Impact Summit in February, underscoring the increasing thaw in bilateral relations, as both countries look to build domestic capacity in AI.
Responding to a question by The Indian Express during a press briefing on Monday, IT Secretary S Krishnan confirmed that New Delhi has sent a formal invite to Beijing. India is hosting the fourth iteration of the summit, which has so far been held in the United Kingdom, South Korea and France.
The AI Summit, which started in the UK in 2023, is not a formal grouping of countries. Invitations to countries to join the forum are decided by the host country. When the UK hosted the first summit, there was pushback from some of Britain’s closest allies and its own lawmakers over its invitation to Beijing, but the country’s government eventually went ahead with the invitation. China was also part of the subsequent two summits.
India will host the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 from February 15 to 20 next year, with the forum coming to the Global South for the first time. The Summit is intended to generate actionable recommendations that contribute to long-term AI governance objectives rather than framing immediate binding regulations.
Krishnan said the expected participants include heads of government of nearly 15 to 20 countries and key global figures in AI and tech.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the expo, and is also likely to host a dinner in the evening and address the CEO Roundtable,” the IT Secretary said. “Global leaders like Bill Gates have confirmed attendance. We have confirmations from Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind Technologies; Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic; Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe; Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce; Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm; and Raj Subramanyam, CEO of FedEx among others,” Krishnan said.
“We have sent out invitations to close to about 140 countries, and have so far received about 15,500 registrations from 136 countries; 76 of these countries are from the Global South,” he said.
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India’s invitation to China marks yet another step in the easing of ties between the two countries. Earlier this year, direct flights between India and China resumed after a gap of over five years. Similarly, while China earlier stonewalled applications by companies that supply components made of rare earth metals to India’s automobile manufacturers, as it imposed a blockade on the critical minerals following the US tariffs, it has now started to clear some applications.
India’s goods exports in November jumped 19 per cent, aided by a weaker rupee and strong demand across markets, including China, Europe and the US, particularly for products exempted from tariffs, helping narrow the trade deficit to a five-month low of $24 billion, data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry earlier this month showed.
The exports indicate strong signs of diversification, but exporters may have also benefited from the recent tensions between China and Japan. Indian exports to China, particularly seafood, have surged as Beijing has begun restricting imports from Tokyo. Indian exports to China jumped 90 per cent and to Hong Kong by 35 per cent last month.
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