FM Ishaq Dar Signs The WAICO Agreement At WAIC 2026, Pledging Pakistan Will Help Bridge The Global AI Divide From The Perspective Of The Global South
According to Dawn, Pakistan became a founding member of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO) on July 16, 2026, after Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar signed the establishment agreement in Shanghai, China.
Pakistan reaffirmed its commitment to advancing international cooperation in artificial intelligence, especially from the perspective of the Global South, and expressed its commitment to helping bridge the global AI divide and promote equitable access to AI for development. China first proposed WAICO at the WAIC 2025 conference.
FM Dar also held a bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of WAIC 2026, during which both sides underscored the importance of advancing high-quality development under CPEC 2.0 and enhancing collaboration in trade, investment, science and technology, the digital economy, and AI.
Chinese President Xi Jinping attended WAIC for the first time, outlining China’s vision for global AI governance, while Huawei debuted its Atlas 950 SuperPoD; a large-scale AI computing system using Ascend chips designed as an alternative to Nvidia alongside DeepSeek’s latest V4 model adapted to run entirely on Huawei hardware.
Pakistan’s WAICO membership is a strategic bet as much as a diplomatic one. Positioning itself as a champion of AI equity for the Global South gives Islamabad diplomatic leverage it can use at the UN, in Washington, and across the Muslim world. The question is whether the country can back that positioning with real AI infrastructure, talent, and governance frameworks before the next WAIC.
Check out our previous coverage of Pakistan affairs on The Trusted Times.
