Permanent Mission of India
New York

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Interactive dialogue by the co-chairs of the Independent International
Scientific Panel on AI

Statement by Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, Permanent Representative
19 June 2026

    Thank you Chair.

   India welcomes this opportunity to engage with the Co-Chairs of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, Maria Ressa and Yoshua Bengio, and appreciates the efforts undertaken thus far to operationalise the Panel.  We align ourselves with the statement of the G77 and China delivered by Uruguay.

     As we move forward, it is important that the work of the Panel remains firmly anchored in the mandate agreed by Member States in General Assembly resolution 79/325. The Terms of Reference, adopted by consensus, reflect a carefully negotiated balance among diverse priorities and perspectives. Preserving the balance will be essential to maintaining confidence in the process and ensuring broad ownership of the Panel’s work. We therefore encourage strict adherence to the agreed mandate, scope, and modalities established by Member States.

    Second, the Panel’s work should maintain a balanced, comprehensive, and development-oriented approach to artificial intelligence. While risks, challenges, and potential harms associated with AI deserve careful and rigorous examination, these should not become the sole focus of the Panel’s work. Resolution 79/325 recognises both the opportunities and risks presented by AI. For developing countries, AI holds significant potential to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, strengthen public service delivery, improve access to education and healthcare, enhance agricultural productivity, and support innovation-led growth. The Panel should therefore devote equal attention to identifying pathways through which developing countries can harness the benefits of AI while addressing capacity, infrastructure, data, and skills gaps.

      Third, it is essential to preserve the independent, scientific, and technical character of the Panel. Its credibility will depend on its ability to provide objective, evidence-based, multidisciplinary, and geographically representative assessments. The Panel should remain a source of impartial scientific expertise and avoid becoming a forum for political negotiation or policy prescription.

      India looks forward to the Panel making a meaningful contribution to international cooperation on AI and to advancing the vision articulated at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 held in New Delhi. As the first global AI summit hosted in the Global South, the Summit underscored the importance of ensuring that the benefits of AI are accessible to all countries and that developing countries are not merely consumers of AI technologies, but active participants in shaping the future of AI governance.

        In this regard, the Independent International Scientific Panel can play an important role by providing the objective, evidence-based scientific foundation needed to support informed global discussions and to ensure that AI governance frameworks are inclusive, development-oriented, and responsive to the needs and priorities of the Global South. 

    Thank you.