India Pushes AI Diplomacy Through Act East Policy
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- India's Act East Policy (AEP) needs a dedicated AI Diplomacy pillar to pursue AI sovereignty across five layers — application, model, semiconductor, infrastructure, and energy — after its first decade focused on defense deals such as BrahMos agreements with Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
- The First India-Japan AI Strategic Dialogue convened on April 21, 2026, operationalizing the Japan-India AI Cooperation Initiative (JAI) that PM Modi launched during his August 2025 visit to Japan.
- The India-Korea Digital Bridge launched in April 2026 to drive bilateral cooperation across AI, semiconductors, and the broader electronics and IT sector, signaling South Korea's renewed interest in the Indian market as it pivots away from U.S. and Chinese dependence.
- The 2026-2030 ASEAN-India Plan of Action under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership explicitly tasks member states with advancing joint capacity building, knowledge sharing, and studies on AI governance, standards, and tools.
- Japan's ASEAN-Japan Co-Creation Initiative for AI (October 2025) emphasized human resource development and co-creation of AI solutions through structured industry-academia-government collaboration, a model the article urges India to replicate.
- The India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 can be leveraged to attract memory-chip, packaging, and talent-development investment from South Korean, Taiwanese, and Japanese conglomerates seeking to de-risk from China, with the article recommending New Delhi follow its own shipbuilding-sector outreach playbook.
Why it matters: India's AI ambitions face structural limits from U.S. visa constraints, export controls, and one-way talent flows, making East Asian partnerships materially urgent rather than optional. The April 2026 India-Japan and India-Korea digital frameworks, combined with ISM 2.0, give New Delhi concrete vehicles within months to convert joint statements into chip-manufacturing investment, two-way talent placement, and joint AI research with like-minded partners diversifying away from China.
