AIDAQ 2026: Deepening and forming partnerships

A booth of the International Digital Dialogues at the summit served as an informal meeting point for participants from across the technology stack. The secretariat explained concrete possibilities to take part in the Digital Dialogues, and engaged in discussions on emerging technologies with delegates from around the world.

Tech Middle Powers in the Global AI Race

Another international highlight was a panel discussion on Germany’s bilateral AI partnerships, organized by the secretariat. The session brought together Canada’s Ambassador Vera Alexander, India’s Ambassador Ajit Gupte and Brazil’s Minister-Counsellor in Germany, Paulo Gustavo Iansen de Sant’Ana. They had a fruitful discussion on the role of tech middle powers in the global AI race. The panel was moderated by Parliamentary State Secretary Thomas Jarzombek of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation (BMDS).

This year, Germany has signed bilateral AI partnerships with all three participating countries. In February, the Indo-German AI Pact was announced. The same month, Canada and Germany signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on AI and launched the Sovereign Technology Alliance. In April followed the German-Brazilian AI Partnership for Innovation and Trust. Tech middle powers have therefore built momentum, which was reflected on by the speakers on the panel.  

Launching new partnerships

AIDAQ also offered a good setting for the launch of a new dialogue format: Nasscom’s EU Forum. As India’s IT association, Nasscom represents a $315 billion industry and wants to deepen ties with European associations, companies and government representatives. It already introduced similar formats in the US and the UK – and now chose Berlin as the launch pad for this high-level forum. During the Exclusive Opening Event of the summit, Bitkom and Nasscom had already aligned their intentions to deepen the cooperation between India’s and Germany’s IT sectors. The EU Forum constituted a major step in this direction.  

Chaired by Nasscom’s president Rajesh Nambiar, the forum brought together C-level representatives from German and Indian IT companies. A roundtable discussion identified key priorities for future cooperation. Participants agreed on industrial AI solutions as the greatest economic driver of the coming years. They agreed that deploying such solutions across borders requires the development of joint standards. It was pointed out that the coming EU-India Free Trade Agreement offers extensive opportunities for both sides to collaborate and co-innovate.  

Next steps

AIDAQ deepened and formed new partnerships. Now, all eyes are on the next big conference – the Digital Resilience in a Multipolar World Conference – where the partnerships are put into practice and participants can jointly develop recommendations for more digital resilience. The conference will take place on 27 November 2026 at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. Make sure to register for the conference here.  

If you have any questions regarding the AI partnerships with India, Canada, and Brazil, or about the International Digital Dialogues, reach out to via digital-dialogues@giz.de.