Chief scientist advances Cyprus role at EU-India forum

Chief Scientist Demetris Skourides participated in the EU-India Forum in New Delhi on February 6-7, in efforts to strengthen Cyprus’ positioning within the evolving EU-India Innovation and Technology Partnership.

Skourides was accompanied by Heraklitos Iosifides, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Cyprus High Commission in India, and Nicolas Kyriakides, President of the Cyprus Forum, during the official visit.

The closed, invitation-only Forum was hosted by India’s Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar and convened by the Ananta Centre in partnership with India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

The event followed the 16th India-EU Summit and the historic conclusion of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, aiming to translate high-level political agreements into actionable outcomes.

Discussions were structured around Security and Defence with a focus on maritime security and Indo-Pacific cooperation, Technology including semiconductors, cybersecurity and AI governance, Connectivity with emphasis on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, and Climate and Energy aligned with the clean energy transition.

More than 200 senior policymakers, advisers, industry leaders, technocrats, corporations, startups and strategic experts from India and all 27 EU Member States attended the Forum, which sought to deepen strategic convergence and convert commitments into concrete initiatives.

A central theme was the further development of the trade and investment architecture after the FTA, with a view to boosting bilateral trade and deepening economic engagement for mutual benefit.

“game changer,” Jaishankar described the advancement.

Security and defence cooperation featured prominently, covering maritime security, geopolitical shifts, Indo-Pacific engagement, counterterrorism and hybrid threats alongside emerging technologies such as semiconductors, cybersecurity, digital governance and artificial intelligence.

Connectivity, sustainability, talent mobility, defence collaboration, technology transfer and people-to-people ties were also examined as pillars of the partnership.

Throughout the Forum, Skourides engaged with EU and Indian leaders to assess how Cyprus can reinforce its standing in innovation, research excellence and technological development.

These efforts will continue with the forthcoming visit to India by Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nicodemos Damianou and Skourides’ participation in the India AI Impact Expo 2026 in New Delhi during the week commencing Monday, February 18, 2026.

Building on discussions in India, Skourides will focus on accelerating innovation and commercialisation through the EU-India corridor and shaping an operational India-Cyprus innovation engine connecting digital infrastructure, talent mobility and investment pathways.

The initiative aims to enable startups and innovation ecosystems to scale their presence in Cyprus through structured collaboration.

The Forum, organised by the Ananta Centre, featured thematic streams on the EU-India strategic trajectory for the next decade, trade and investment architecture, defence and emerging threats, the global talent contest, artificial intelligence governance and the concept of the Five-Dimension Battlefront.

Sessions were addressed by senior figures including Jaishankar, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Railways and Electronics Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Professor K. Vijay Raghavan, former Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

A special fireside discussion featured Greece’s Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias.

During meetings on the sidelines, Skourides held talks with Hervé Delphin, EU Ambassador to India, Jean-Eric Paquet, EU Ambassador to Japan, and Sethu Saveda Suvana, CEO and Founder of ReOrbit.

A key focus was the development of interoperable standards to accelerate AI ethics and safety across the EU.

Maria Cristina Russo, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission, stressed the importance of leveraging AI in science to strengthen Europe’s competitive advantage and underlined cross-border collaboration between Europe and India.

“if you want to scale big, India is the game,” Goyal said, highlighting that several EU companies in India have achieved growth exceeding 1,000-fold.

Skourides emphasised that Cyprus’ Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with its focus on digital autonomy, sovereignty and trustworthy AI, must translate strategic dialogue into operational pathways for joint research and innovation initiatives.

In discussions with Professor Raghavan, the potential of artificial intelligence in biotechnology and medical sciences was highlighted, with growing consensus that AI may achieve its first transformative impact in biotechnology.

The session “India and the EU A Strategic Course for the Next Decade” and panels on AI governance, trade architecture, mobility and space cooperation were identified as particularly significant.

The session “Five-Dimension Battlefront Building Resilient Defence Systems” explored the convergence of security, space and defence, noting the growing reliance on autonomous technologies and advanced defence systems.

In exchanges with Andrea Margelletti of Centro Studi Internazionali, European sovereignty was linked to leadership in AI across cyber warfare and quantum technologies.

During the fireside chat, Dendias pointed to growing Mediterranean-India linkages and Greece’s pivot towards “smart” defence focused on innovation rather than heavy hardware.

In the session “Innovation Rules Aligning India-EU Approaches to AI,” Russo presented the EU AI Continent Plan and AI for Science initiatives aimed at safeguarding Europe’s research ecosystem.

The session “Orbital Futures Exploring a Space Partnership” highlighted joint satellite initiatives combining India’s launch capabilities with Europe’s technological strengths, while Finnish startups demonstrated innovative space architectures outperforming traditional models.

India’s semiconductor ambitions were outlined by Shri S. Krishnan of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, presenting the second phase of the national semiconductor strategy.

“Cyprus is uniquely positioned at the intersection of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia to act as a trusted innovation and technology gateway. As Cyprus holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with a clear focus on digital autonomy, sovereignty, and trustworthy AI, our responsibility is to move decisively from dialogue to delivery,” Skourides said.

“Our objective is clear to transform strategic partnerships into tangible economic growth, scientific excellence, and high-value opportunities that reinforce Cyprus’s role as a regional hub for innovation and global collaboration,” he added.