{"id":129480,"date":"2026-07-16T18:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=129480"},"modified":"2026-07-16T18:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:41:12","slug":"dar-arrives-in-shanghai-to-sign-pakistans-founding-membership-of-china-led-ai-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/","title":{"rendered":"Dar arrives in Shanghai to sign Pakistan&#8217;s founding membership of China-led AI body"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shanghai(National Times)- Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar reached China\u2019s Shanghai on two-day visit on Thursday to sign an agreement for Pakistan to join the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO) as a founding member, the Foreign Office (FO) said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">China proposed the creation of WAICO last year for AI governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Upon his arrival in China, Dar was received by Shanghai Vice Mayor Wu Wei, Pakistan\u2019s Charge d\u2019Affaires to China Aizaz Khan and Consul General of Pakistan in Shanghai Shahzad Ahmad Khan, the FO said on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It added that apart from attending the signing ceremony of WAICO, Dar will also participate in the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2026 during the visit and engage with other leaders to advance international AI cooperation and promote inclusive, equitable AI governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An earlier statement by the FO said that Dar would also hold a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, as well as meetings with other officials to discuss matters of mutual interest during the China trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDuring his engagements, the Deputy Prime Minister\/Foreign Minister will share Pakistan\u2019s perspective on strengthening international cooperation in artificial intelligence, with particular emphasis on the priorities and development needs of the Global South,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It added that \u201che will underscore the importance of bridging the global AI divide, promoting equitable access to AI technologies, enhancing capacity-building, and ensuring that the benefits of AI contribute to sustainable development and shared prosperity for all\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last July, opening WAIC in Shanghai, Chinese Premier Li Qiang&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1926719\"><u>emphasised<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;the need for governance and open-source development, announcing the establishment of a Chinese-led body for international AI cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2003203\"><u>four-day visit<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;to China by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in May this year, Pakistan expressed its support for \u201cChina\u2019s initiative of establishing the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1926719\"><u>World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation<\/u><\/a>, believing that this represents a concrete step toward promoting the development of artificial intelligence for good and for all\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Islamabad pledged to work with Beijing to \u201cadvance global governance and international cooperation\u201d on AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/2015858\/dar-arrives-in-shanghai-to-sign-pakistans-founding-membership-of-china-led-ai-body#what-to-expect-at-waic\"><\/a>What to expect at WAIC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to outline an ambitious vision for China\u2019s role in \u200bglobal AI governance at WAIC on Friday, as Huawei showcases its most advanced AI computing cluster yet in a sign of \u200cBeijing\u2019s drive to build a domestic alternative to US technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Xi\u2019s attendance at the annual WAIC for the first time underscores Beijing\u2019s view of AI as both a driver of economic growth and a strategic technology in global competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Huawei\u2019s Atlas 950 SuperPoD large-scale AI computing system will make its public debut during the \u200bforum in Shanghai. The launch is one of the clearest demonstrations yet of China\u2019s efforts to assemble such systems without US giant Nvidia\u2019s \u200bmost advanced chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Designed for large-scale AI training and inference, the system links thousands of Huawei\u2019s Ascend AI processors through high-speed \u2060interconnects so they operate as a single computing cluster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DeepSeek\u2019s latest V4 model has been adapted to run entirely on clusters built using Huawei\u2019s Ascend chips, highlighting \u200bprogress by Chinese firms in building AI ecosystems independent of US technology. Domestic media reported that Chinese chipmakers, including Biren and MetaX, would also release new \u201csupernode\u201d \u200bcomputing clusters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The gathering comes as Washington and Beijing prepare for their first government-level AI talks under US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, turning WAIC from a technology showcase into an early test of how China intends to compete for influence over the rules governing AI worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two rivals set out competing visions for AI governance at a UN AI \u200bdialogue last week, where Washington argued that sweeping regulation would stifle tech breakthroughs and Beijing framed its low-cost, open-source AI models as a public good \u200bthat would bridge global AI inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAgainst this backdrop, WAIC has become more than a technology showcase; it is now a geopolitical stage where Beijing seeks to articulate its vision \u200cof AI \u2060as both a national priority and a diplomatic instrument,\u201d wrote George Chen, chair of digital practice at the Asia Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The conference coincides with a \u200bHigh-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in \u200bShanghai, where progress on WAICO \u2060and implementing the Global AI Governance Initiative are expected to be announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beijing is also expected to promote China\u2019s open-source AI models as a low-cost alternative to Western offerings, arguing they can broaden access to the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe development of \u200bAI must never move toward a technological monopoly that walls itself in, but should always be anchored to the \u200bfundamental goal of \u2060serving humanity,\u201d read a&nbsp;<em>People\u2019s Daily<\/em>&nbsp;commentary this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Besides Chinese tech industry heavyweights, international leaders including UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul will attend WAIC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nine Turing Award and Nobel laureates, including deep learning pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Richard Sutton, will also attend, but there is little representation \u2060from major \u200bUS tech firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other product launches expected at the \u200bforum include AI agent smartphones from ZTE-owned Nubia and AI startup StepFun, according to Chinese media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shanghai(National Times)- Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar reached China\u2019s Shanghai on two-day visit on Thursday to sign an agreement for Pakistan to join the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO) as a founding member, the Foreign Office (FO) said. China proposed the creation of WAICO last year for AI governance. Upon his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dar arrives in Shanghai to sign Pakistan&#039;s founding membership of China-led AI body - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dar arrives in Shanghai to sign Pakistan&#039;s founding membership of China-led AI body - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shanghai(National Times)- Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar reached China\u2019s Shanghai on two-day visit on Thursday to sign an agreement for Pakistan to join the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO) as a founding member, the Foreign Office (FO) said. China proposed the creation of WAICO last year for AI governance. Upon his [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-16T13:41:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-16T13:41:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-16-4.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/\",\"name\":\"Dar arrives in Shanghai to sign Pakistan's founding membership of China-led AI body - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-16-4.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-16T13:41:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-16T13:41:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-16-4.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-16-4.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dar arrives in Shanghai to sign Pakistan&#8217;s founding membership of China-led AI body\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dar arrives in Shanghai to sign Pakistan's founding membership of China-led AI body - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129480\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dar arrives in Shanghai to sign Pakistan's founding membership of China-led AI body - Nation","og_description":"Shanghai(National Times)- Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar reached China\u2019s Shanghai on two-day visit on Thursday to sign an agreement for Pakistan to join the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO) as a founding member, the Foreign Office (FO) said. 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