New Delhi, Feb. 11 -- A series of bilateral talks with France will be key to India's quest for a seat in the global league of artificial intelligence (AI) dominance.

China, a closed economy, has already achieved a generative AI breakthrough with DeepSeek's model. US president Donald Trump is vying to retain America's dominance in global technology by instituting curbs on AI and high-tech exports. Indian industry stakeholders said an agreement with France can give the country a significant international partner-both as part of its global geopolitical strategy and to expand soft power by developing and selling AI applications, models and services.

"Mistral, a French company, is also one of the top 10 global names in AI applications and se...