China: UN a solid platform for AI cooperation

China will consult and cooperate with other countries through the broad platform of the United Nations on major issues concerning the future of global AI governance, guided by principles of openness, open-source cooperation, mutual benefit, joint contribution and shared benefit, China's UN ambassador Fu Cong said on Friday.

Fu was speaking at a briefing organized by the Chinese mission at UN headquarters, which took place two weeks after Shanghai hosted the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance.

Fu described the Shanghai conference as more than a platform for dialogue, exchange and cooperation, but as a means for stakeholders to facilitate the global flow of innovation resources for AI development.

"More importantly, it focused on the defining issue of our times: how to ensure that artificial intelligence develops in ways that benefit all humanity," he told representatives from more than 70 countries and international organizations at Friday's briefing.

Fu noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined China's vision for building a just and equitable global AI governance system with four observations: boosting innovation-driven development, ensuring AI remains secure and under human control, promoting mutual learning among civilizations, and improving global governance.

Fu described the launch of the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO), the world's first intergovernmental international organization dedicated to AI, at the conference as "China's concrete response to the aspirations of the Global South and an important step toward bringing countries together for AI development and global governance".

Representatives of 29 countries signed WAICO's founding convention, with Fu emphasizing that all countries are welcome to participate.

The ambassador said WAICO is designed to complement and reinforce the UN's work on AI governance by focusing on capacity-building, policy dialogue, technical cooperation and AI applications.

"China stands ready to strengthen policy coordination, institutional cooperation and practical collaboration with the United Nations, and to support the UN in playing an even greater role in global AI governance," he added.

"We see the UN as the main channel and the main platform for global governance on AI."

Asked about regulation, Fu said governments must balance innovation against risk.

"If you have too much regulation, then you stifle innovation," he said, while warning that giving companies free rein could expose societies to the dangers inherent in AI.

Also at Friday's briefing, Amandeep Gill, the UN secretary-general's envoy on technology, described the World AI Conference as being "qualitatively different" as it represented "a significant step forward" in making AI capacity-building an international priority.

Gill said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is focused on AI capacity, safety and sustainability, and stressed that different initiatives should complement one another, with the United Nations retaining a central role.

"I think the UN should remain the inclusive home for AI governance," Gill said at the Q&A session of Friday's briefing.

Representatives from countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean also spoke at the briefing.

Moses Jeres, a counselor and cyber/digital expert with Zambia's UN mission, said compute remains the binding constraint for most African countries. The obstacle is neither ambition nor talent, but access to computing infrastructure, quality data and comparable standards, Jeres said.

"The undertakings given in Shanghai on access to computing infrastructure and AI standards frameworks are therefore of real consequence," he added.

Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said the establishment of WAICO is timely and significant, as it provides a platform for countries, particularly those of the Global South, to strengthen national capacities and promote shared development.

Ahmad said developing countries need more than access to finished AI products, they also need the data, computing capacity, models, tools and technical support required to develop and adapt AI themselves.

"In this regard, the outcomes of the conference and the high-level meeting provide a clear and action-oriented framework for future international progress," he added.

Other speakers welcomed the establishment of WAICO and called for other initiatives emerging from Shanghai to be translated into practical capacity-building support for developing countries, with the broader goal of making AI more inclusive, widely accessible and mutually beneficial.