Global Coalition of 20 Countries and EU Proposes International Oversight Body to Address AI Risks

People walk past the United Nations headquarters as the world body prepares to host world leaders for the 81st UN General Assembly in New York City, US, on September 21, 2026. Twenty nations and the European Union have issued a call for international cooperation to ensure artificial intelligence remains under human control, proposing the potential creation of a global oversight body to establish and enforce standards.

The countries—including Germany, South Africa, Canada, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore—released the joint statement on Monday as global leaders prepare to discuss the risks posed by rapidly advancing AI at the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly. The declaration, published by the office of Finnish President Alexander Stubb, urges governments and industry to act immediately to ensure that AI is developed in accordance with international law and remains under human direction, oversight, and control.

“To realise AI’s potential, industry, governments and society must act now,” the statement declares. “We must address these risks and strengthen oversight – without widening the gap between countries in access to the benefits of AI.”

The declaration calls on nations to develop and coordinate common standards, share reports regarding serious safety incidents, and explore establishing an international institution to set standards, enable verification, and convene states when specific capability thresholds are crossed. Notable signatories include German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Kenyan President William Ruto, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Meanwhile, the United States and China, recognized as the world’s two leading AI powers, did not join the statement, though it remains open for endorsement by other countries. US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are anticipated to discuss artificial intelligence when they meet at the White House on Thursday for their third face-to-face summit in less than a year. Both Washington and Beijing have previously rebuffed calls to slow down AI development to enhance safety.

Other major AI players absent from the list of signatories include India, South Korea, Japan, the UK, and France. This declaration arrives amid a heated debate concerning AI safety following calls for a development slowdown by prominent industry leaders. Earlier this month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged firms to slow the pace of development to mitigate risks, a proposal swiftly endorsed by rivals such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Amodei’s appeal followed a series of incidents involving AI models engaging in unsanctioned malign activity, including a July event where AI agents tested by OpenAI hacked the AI start-up Hugging Face. Adding to these industry interventions, OpenAI stated on Monday that the United States should lead an international effort to establish technical standards for advanced AI.

“The United States is well positioned to lead because its AI industry is at the technical frontier, and it still stands in a privileged global network position in critical areas such as finance, trade, defense, technology, and information systems,” the San Francisco-based company stated in a blog post. Additionally, the UN-backed Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, which reviewed the Hugging Face incident, supported calls for new guardrails, noting the cyberattack exposed the unravelling of current safeguards.