4 min readNew DelhiFeb 22, 2026 04:30 PM IST
First published on: Feb 21, 2026 at 09:08 PM IST
From a charter on “democratic diffusion” of artificial intelligence (AI) to pool shared resources, to a voluntary network of scientific institutions to connect those researching on AI around the world, 88 countries and international organisations, including the United States, China, France, Australia and the UK, signed the ‘New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact’ — the key outcome document of the five-day India AI Impact Summit — on Friday.
This marks a diplomatic victory for India, as it managed to convince a wide range of countries to endorse the declaration. At the AI Action Summit in Paris last year, the US and the UK had declined to sign the declaration, with the former flagging Europe’s regulatory approach towards AI as an issue.
The Indian Express had reported on the contours of the declaration on February 18.
Through the declaration, India has maintained the focus on its key pitch ahead of the AI Summit — “democratising” AI, while respecting the sovereignty of countries — a move which government officials say will counter the general direction of AI development in the West, where the technology is concentrated in the hands of a few companies and individuals. However, the next step — getting all the signatories to actually implement the commitments in the declaration — would be the real challenge, given that all the endorsements are voluntary in nature.
The declaration sets a number of voluntary frameworks and platforms that countries have said they will participate in, to share AI resources, use cases, and expertise, among other things. For instance, it states that the signatories have agreed to a “Charter for the Democratic Diffusion of AI”, under which they will “promote access to foundational AI resources, support locally relevant innovation, and strengthen resilient AI ecosystems while respecting national laws”.
“Wide-scale adoption of AI and AI-based applications hold unprecedented potential to drive economic and social development. Open-source AI applications and other accessible AI approaches, where appropriate, and wide-scale diffusion of AI use cases can contribute to scalability, replicability, and adaptability of AI systems across sectors,” it states.
Similarly, signatories have also taken note of the “Global AI Impact Commons” as a voluntary initiative that provides a practical platform to encourage and enable the adoption, replication, and scale-up of successful AI use cases across regions.
Recognising the importance of security in AI systems, industry-led voluntary measures, and the adoption of technical solutions and appropriate policy frameworks that enable innovation while promoting public interest throughout the AI’s lifecycle, the signatories have endorsed a “Trusted AI Commons”, a collaborative platform consolidating technical resources, tools, benchmarks and best practices that can access and adapt to their contexts.
With an aim to remove structural barriers and increase the availability of AI research infrastructure to promote its use in scientific research and development across countries, the declaration has endorsed the creation of an “International Network of AI for Science Institutions”, as a platform to connect scientific communities and pool AI research capabilities across regions among participating institutions, in order to accelerate the impactful adoption of AI.
“AI holds the potential to uplift all sections of society by enabling individuals to access knowledge, cross-border AI solutions, information, services, opportunities and enhancing participation in social and economic activities. We recognise the importance of collaborations that would facilitate AI adoption for social empowerment,” says the declaration. The signatories have noted the development of a voluntary and collaborative platform to facilitate exchange of learning, knowledge, and scalable practices to advance AI adoption for social empowerment.
Recognising the need for people to upskill and reskill, the signatories have also endorsed voluntary guiding principles for reskilling in the age of AI and the playbook on AI workforce development, which would support participants in preparation for a future AI driven economy. For creating AI systems that are resilient, the declaration also noted “Voluntary Guiding Principles on Resilient, Innovative, and Efficient Artificial Intelligence”.
It is understood that the European Union initially had reservations about some of the passages in the declaration as they closely mirrored some UN charters. However, the bloc decided to sign the declaration, recognising India as a key trading ally.
The declaration sets a number of voluntary frameworks and platforms that countries have said they will participate in, to share AI resources, use cases, and expertise, among other things (PTI Photo) 
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