29 countries sign a treaty to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization

Twenty-nine countries signed an agreement on 16 July to establish the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO), Reuters reported. China says the intergovernmental body aims to promote international cooperation and global governance in AI.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, signed on behalf of Beijing. UN Secretary-General António Guterres attended the ceremony. The founding members include Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Cuba, Brazil, and Venezuela, along with 10 African and 12 Asian countries.

The organisation will sit in Shanghai, state agency Xinhua said. China proposed WAICO at last year’s conference, but no country had formally announced membership until now.

Timed for the AI summit

The signing took place on the eve of the 2026 World AI Conference in Shanghai. Xi Jinping is due to open the event in person for the first time. He is expected to outline China’s vision for global AI governance.

A linked High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance will also review progress on WAICO, Reuters reported.

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Competing visions

China and the US set out rival approaches at a UN AI dialogue last week, according to Reuters. Washington argued that heavy regulation would stifle breakthroughs. Beijing framed its low-cost, open-source models as a public good that could narrow global AI inequality.

Few major US tech firms appear at the Shanghai conference. The two governments are also preparing for their first official AI talks under President Donald Trump. The dispute is part of a wider US-China contest over AI.

Analysts describe WAICO as a body for developing countries outside Western frameworks. Those include the EU’s AI Act and the G7 process.

“China has been making inroads with Southeast Asian countries in terms of AI capacity-building,” an Asian diplomat told Reuters. It “portrays itself as speaking up for developing countries who are being left behind in the AI race.”