Overview
- The two governments, following the UAE president’s visit to New Delhi, directed teams to explore establishing digital embassies under mutually recognised sovereignty arrangements.
- Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri described the initiative as creating a secure safe harbour for data of national importance, noting the concept is new for India with only a few global examples.
- Both sides signalled the need to build a regulatory framework to address sovereignty, legal immunity and jurisdiction before any rollout.
- The exploration sits within a broader push on technology ties that includes collaboration on AI, a supercomputing cluster in India and potential data-centre projects.
- Implementation options are being studied, with reports citing Gujarat’s GIFT City as a potential host in India and precedents including Estonia’s and Monaco’s data embassies in Luxembourg.