Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday released the list of countries whose leaders will attend the India–AI Impact Summit 2026, to be held in the national capital next week.The summit, hosted at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is being positioned as the first major global AI gathering in the Global South.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 will take place from February 16 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Leaders, ministers, global CEOs and representatives of international organisations are expected to deliberate on the future of artificial intelligence, its economic impact and governance frameworks.
Leaders attending the summit
According to the MEA, the following leaders are scheduled to participate:
- Bhutan – Tshering Tobgay, Prime Minister
- Bolivia – Edmand Lara Montano, Vice President
- Brazil – Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President
- Croatia – Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister
- Estonia – Alar Karis, President
- Finland – Petteri Orpo, Prime Minister
- France – Emmanuel Macron, President
- Greece – Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister
- Guyana – Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, Vice President
- Kazakhstan – Olzhas Bektenov, Prime Minister
- Liechtenstein – Hereditary Prince Alois, Hereditary Prince of the Principality of Liechtenstein
- Mauritius – Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Prime Minister
- Serbia – Aleksandar Vučić, President
- Slovakia – Peter Pellegrini, President
- Spain – Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, President
- Sri Lanka – Anura Kumara Disanayaka, President
- Seychelles – Sebastien Pillay, Vice President
- Switzerland – Guy Parmelin, President
- The Netherlands – Dick Schoof, Prime Minister
- United Arab Emirates (UAE) – Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi
In addition, ministerial delegations from over 45 countries will participate. The United Nations Secretary-General and senior officials from several international organisations are also expected to join the deliberations.The summit comes at a time when global AI ecosystems are undergoing significant shifts. While large language models have shown rapid progress, policymakers and experts have increasingly highlighted the need for stronger data governance, diversified AI architectures and sector-specific deployment.The event is structured around three pillars: People, Planet and Progress which branch into seven thematic working groups covering AI skilling, social inclusion, safety, scientific research, sustainable computing, democratising access and economic growth.Over 700 session proposals have been received. On February 17, the government will release the AI Compendium, documenting case studies of AI applications in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education and energy. The summit will conclude with the GPAI Council meeting on February 20.Union minister for electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw has described the response as “phenomenal”, with participation expected from nearly 100 countries. More than 100 global CEOs are likely to attend.Prominent technology leaders, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, are also expected to be present.The summit will also feature competitions such as AI for ALL and AI by HER, with top prizes of Rs 2.50 crore, along with youth-focused initiatives like YUVAi and India AI Tinkerpreneur. An exhibition spread over 70,000 square metres will showcase more than 300 exhibitors from 30 countries.
