HomeWorldIndia - Taiwan Must 'Get Together'

India – Taiwan Must ‘Get Together’

As Taipei berates Beijing with a ‘Get Lost’ reply on its attempts to impose censorship on New Delhi’s media, experts and analysts propound India and Taiwan to ‘Get Together’ ensuring mutual development, security, and peace

@Kunal_Chonkar

New Delhi: Fireworks are part of almost every patriotic celebrations around the world. Over some time, they have become the central component of national events, marking triumphs over tyranny and symbolizing the restoration of peace. Taiwan celebrates its National Day on October 10. The Double Tenth National Day is celebrated in commemoration of the 1911 Wuchang Uprising.

While dazzling pyrotechnic colors and sparks are yet to lit up Taipei’s skyline marking the celebration of the country’s 109th Double Ten National Day, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu sparked fireworks two days before the grand celebration by asking China to ‘Get Lost’. He berated Beijing over its attempt to impose censorship on Indian media against violating the ‘One China’ principle.

While, commending the strong stance taken by Minister Wu, foreign policy experts speaking to TheNews21 for the ‘India-Taiwan Relations’ series, propounded both democracies to aggrandize their relations beyond the Kautilyan extrapolation ‘enemy’s enemy is my friend.’ Analysts advocated an unconstrained acceptance of Taipei as an autonomous entity by New Delhi for deeper people-to-people cooperation favoring a closer relationship between the two nations.

Bonhomie Beyond Beijing

Taiwan-India relation needs to go beyond the China factor, which is a common concern between Taipei and New Delhi, underscored Dr. I-chung Lai, President of Prospect Foundation in Taiwan. “Taiwan has long considered India as the next opportunity for economic growth and strategic partner in Asia since the first DPP administration (2000-2008). It was met with a rather reserved response from Indian foreign policy establishment which saw Taiwan as a liability for India-China relations. Now, we need to get rid of this psychological barrier to get going for Taipei-New Delhi tie,” Dr. Lai said.

Also Read: Afghanistan seeks enhanced trade ties with India through ‘optimum’ use of Chabahar port

He marked that the Taiwan-India relation, unlike many other relationships between Taiwan and Southeast Asia, is driven by the top, whether initiative from New Delhi in 1991 or from Taipei in 2002-2008. It happened before any substantial economic interactions took place.

“Thus we need to bear in mind about the very strategic nature of this relationship and should abandon the conventional view that this is a bottom-up process, though this relationship can not sustain without strong economic, social, and cultural interactions. It is just that we need to realize we can not wait for the flourishing of the economic, social, and cultural relationship between Taiwan and India. Those areas of deepening engagement will happen through a directive from the top,” he said while highlighting the bureaucratic red-tapism is another huge problem in the relations between the two democracies.

“This issue has been further exacerbated because no Indian ministerial-level visits to Taiwan are allowed, be it from the Central Government or the Chief Minister in states. To Taiwanese businessmen, this represents the lack of commitment from both central and local governments about inviting investment from Taiwan. They cannot go through all those bureaucratic troubles every time for even small issues such as open up a bank account or have home phone registration,” Dr. Lai added.

According to the Taiwanese scholar, another issue needing to be addressed is the lack of institutional stability for Taiwan-Indian ties. “Few people in Indian Foreign Service can effectively lock down the development of Taiwan-India tie. There is no substantial congressional and political parties’ relationship between Taiwan and India. There is some progress in the academic area which still needs investment from both sides. We need to open this first by loosening up the level of ministerial and congressional visits between Taiwan and India,” he suggested.

“Taiwan and India are natural democratic partners. While we stick with this ideal; We just need to realize that pro-active caring, eliminating un-necessary obstacles for this relationship is the pre-requisite for moving the partnership forward. As we wait for greater economic interactions and believing that this will automatically enhance the relationship,” Dr. Lai hoped.

Clear Vision for Security-Strategic Cooperation

Research Associate of the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy (CCAS) Namrata Hasija cited that in 2016, Taiwan proposed the New Southbound Policy and designated India as the country of focus, which indicated great potential in India–Taiwan relations.

“However, due to the China Factor, the public exchange between Taiwan and India is limited to economic, trade, and cultural aspects; by contrast, the security cooperation and military exchange are mainly kept low-key and slowly progressing. In the current state, India is reluctant to confront China but has also determined not to submit to the Beijing government. If conflicts occur between India and China, India will first seek help from countries including the United States, Japan, and Russia rather than Taiwan,” Hasija said.

She marked that while India seeks to support and help from the United States and Japan to counterweigh and act against China, China is doing the same by gathering allies in countries near India. Despite India’s increasingly enhanced relations with countries including the United States and Japan, it will not sign the Agreement on Safeguards with them, let alone form a security alliance with Taiwan. Although Taiwan’s influence and value in terms of military strategy are less than those of other countries, it has a unique role in counterweighing China.

“To increase the potential for Taiwan–India security cooperation, the specific benefits and value of such cooperation must be made clear to India. Another possible scenario for increasing such potential is when major conflicts occur between India and China because India will need support from an alliance led by the United States then, Taiwan might be able to provide help and expand cooperation with India under the framework of an Indo-Pacific strategy,” Hasija said.

Tech Tactics

“Taiwan and India have a variety of potential areas in technology and science that both can work together. Information Technology (IT) can also mean the combination of Taiwan’s hardware and India’s software. In fact, in the current situation of the US-China trade war, more and more electronic manufacturing giants like Foxconn are shifting their factories to different industrial parks in India. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another area of great potential,” Dr. Roger Liu, the Associate Professor of the FLAME University observed.

He claimed that the algorithm and AI programs from Taiwan will benefit from the training processes through the big data from India in various aspects. India can also work with Taiwan carefree from the fear that data will be used by a hostile government. Other ICT-related areas and products such as the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G networks, or different applications in smart city projects that the Government of India has been pushing for will also benefit from the collaboration.

Also Read: China threatens Taiwan with J-20 stealth planes at Quzhou airbase

“Besides IT, areas such as environmental protection and quality agriculture also possess great potential. As a new hotshot in the world environmental business, Taiwan has the technology and experience to help to deal with environmental issues growing with the economy in India such as air and water pollution, garbages, industrial wastes, and recycling,” the Taiwanese academician said.

People-To-People Policy

Sana Hashmi, Taiwan Fellow at the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University directed that one of the important features of Taipei’s new southbound policy is to promote people-to-people ties among countries under the scope of the policy.

“Tourism is one area that remains under-utilized. People in India remain oblivious to the potential of Taiwan as a tourist destination, while people in Taiwan suffer from several misconceptions about India. There is a need to generate greater awareness about India in Taiwan, and Taiwan in India. Unprecedented discussion and media coverage about Taiwan in India has contributed to greater awareness about Taiwan in India but a coordinated policy from both sides is the need of the hour,” Hashmi voiced.
Taiwan is home to the small but influential and close-knit Indian community, who are well-integrated in Taiwan and help contribute to cultural cooperation between India and Taiwan. Such as Periodic celebrations of festivals, and events added to the young scholar.

“Taiwan is also emerging as an important language destination. Not only students of science but also more Indian students are opting to come to Taiwan to learn Taiwanese,” Hashmi claimed.

Critical Maritime Partners

Former Indian Navy commander, and Director of the Pune-based Maritime Research Centre, Dr. Arnab Das, hailed Taiwan as a critical maritime partner for India, in its strides to secure its backyard – the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). He observed that the ongoing geopolitical and geostrategic developments in the IOR and more specifically in the context of the Indo-Pacific strategic construct demand substantial maritime capacity and capability building in India. The traditional Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) initiative has remained limited to the surface and is sub-optimal, given the emerging underwater threats and opportunities.

“The tropical littoral waters in the entire Indo-Pacific strategic space, comprising of the IOR and the South China Sea (SCS) demands specialized and customized Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) efforts to comprehensively address the maritime challenges and opportunities. Taiwan with its high-end electronics and data science capabilities can be a very critical partner for India to develop an effective UDA framework indigenously. Taiwan has a rich maritime heritage and a sound maritime culture with a major contribution to its economy from the maritime industry. Cooperation in underwater robotics, signal processing, oceanographic modeling, simulation, data science, high-performance computing, underwater archaeology, and more, merit attention,” Dr. Das said.

Strengthen Soft Diplomacy

“India and Taiwan mutually benefit from increased relations and citizen-to-citizen connections. As Taiwan continues to strain her relations with China, unofficial Taiwanese relations with regionally significant countries, such as South Korea and Japan, fulfill an important role in maintaining Taiwan’s independence. Due to India’s economic and political importance within Asia, it could also serve as a powerful unofficial partner in fulfilling this goal,” Dr. Liyaqat Ayub Khan, Associate Professor from the University of Mumbai said.

He accosted that stronger relationships between India and Taiwan could increase tourism, improve research and development, and promote educational ties, all of which are mutually beneficial. Whether India would be able to avoid any negative ramifications from China is unclear, as Beijing typically does not retaliate against countries that engage economically with Taiwan. Such ties, while not enhancing Taiwan’s formal diplomatic recognition, could reduce Taiwan’s economic reliance on China.

“Taiwan’s relations with India have increased in extent spanning trade, research and academia, as well as depth trade ties amounted from $1billion in 2000 to $7.5 billion in 2019. The Taiwan government has a representative office, The Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre, responsible for facilitating collaboration on education, the media, tourism, and economic development. While India will remain aware of China’s preferences regarding Taiwan-India relations, it may pay increasing attention to soft diplomacy through Bollywood movies and shared links to Buddhism, to create a better understanding of Taiwan’s public opinion about India,” Dr. Khan indicated

The scholar from the island city suggested that India-Taiwan relations would develop a global system of economic and security accounts, with the powerful countries, which brings or reduce concerns about the repercussions from China.

Kunal Chonkar
Kunal Chonkar
Worked in the national and international news industry for over 12 years, with extensive experience covering breaking news, diplomatic reporting, conflict and natural disasters. Has specialist knowledge and experience of Asian affairs. Proven track record of working with international missions and national government in his role as a media advisor, and political strategist. He holds a post-graduate degree in International Relations, and Sociology.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Must Read

spot_img