Taiwan’s unconditional support “for all legitimate and necessary actions taken by the government of India to safeguard national security and fight terrorist forces that cross borders to attack innocent civilians” marked a monumental shift in the relationship between Taipei and New Delhi.
At a time when the Indian government sent several delegations of parliament members to convey to the rest of the world Pakistan’s role in sponsoring terrorism against India, Taiwan became one of the few nations that unequivocally supported India’s military operation, “Sindhoor.”
Sure, this change in bilateral ties did not happen in a vacuum. Over the past decade, Taiwan and India have made several strides in their bilateral ties. India has made some strong political overtures toward Taiwan, leading to the opening of another Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in Mumbai. The migration and mobility agreement would also further boost economic and people-to-people ties between the two sides.
Shared security concerns are also one of the major pillars of the improving ties between Taipei and New Delhi. India has talked about promoting peace and security in the Taiwan Strait, and has joined the US and Japan in conducting military exercises in the South China Sea.
India’s strong military response to China’s misadventures has encouraged Taiwan to look at New Delhi as a credible deterrence to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) assertive posturing in the region.
Despite these developments, it is true that India does not have explicit defense and security ties with Taiwan. Hence, a larger question that India needs to address is whether the time has come for it to build strong security ties with Taiwan.
A section of experts and academics in the Indian strategic community believe that India should think beyond its “one China” policy and expand ties with Taiwan.
Maritime cooperation could be a major area of cooperation between New Delhi and Taipei. Since Taiwan and India are facing multiple maritime challenges, they should take concrete steps toward identifying shared areas of cooperation. This would also contribute toward promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has opened up another avenue for Taiwan and India.
Representative to India Baushuan Ger (葛葆萱) rightly said that “as the world enters the AI era, Taiwan and India — both IT [information technology] powerhouses — are well-positioned to drive innovation.”
In this context, it is worth recalling that the two sides have already established the Indo-Taiwan Joint Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at IIT Ropar. It operates as a platform for AI cooperation and innovation between India and Taiwan.
However, this area requires special attention from both sides. Taiwan not only manufactures 90 percent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, but also manufactures 90 percent of AI servers. While India and Taiwan have succeeded in making inroads in jointly manufacturing semiconductor chips, New Delhi needs to take more measures to foster ties with Taipei in the AI domain.
On top of bilateral trade, which has reached US$10 billion, the renewable energy sector also has huge potential for Taiwan and India. As climate change has emerged as a major non-traditional security threat, countries have begun focusing on generating energy through renewable resources to minimize the emission of greenhouse gases. India and Taiwan have also made substantial progress in this regard. India registered a record-breaking 24.5 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity and 3.4GW of wind capacity last year, and aims to reach 500GW of electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.
For that, India needs investment and technological support. However, India is significantly dependent on Chinese solar panels and other technologies in the renewable energy sector. With Taiwan emerging as another hub of renewable energy, India should encourage Taiwanese companies, including TSEC Corp and Green Energy Technology, to invest in its energy sector. Given the scope in the Indian energy market, Taiwanese companies would also get access to a big part of the Indian renewable energy market.
Collaboration between Taiwan and India would help counter Chinese dominance in renewable energy. However, to see substantial progress in this sector, Taipei and New Delhi need to build a strong support system.
The two sides should develop a framework to encourage their private and public companies to jointly invest in India. A joint expert group should also be created to look into the cost benefits associated with the sector. Taiwan could provide policy support to India for the repowering of old turbines to enable better utilization of the best wind resource sites.
As Taiwan and India celebrate 30 years of informal bilateral ties this year, they have more compelling reasons to boost their relationship. In so doing, the administrations of President William Lai (賴清德) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi need to make calibrated efforts to institutionalize bilateral ties.
While Taiwan has already shown its desire to expand cooperation with India under the New Southbound Policy, the nature and direction of cooperation between the two would largely be determined by India’s actions.
Kumar is an assistant professor in the University of Delhi’s Department of Political Science and a former Ministry of Foreign Affairs visiting fellow at National Chengchi University.
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