Former Indian defense minister George Fernandes and a delegation of India's leading academics will be attending a conference entitled "India-Japan-Taiwan Trialogue: Prospects for Democratic Coopera-tion" held by the Taiwan Thinktank in Taipei tomorrow.
Fernandes, currently a member of the House of the People and president of the United Party, is slated to give a keynote speech in the conference.
Fernandes and the Indian delegation's visit is hailed as a rare high-level exchange between Taiwan and India, which, despite increased ties over recent years, see few high-ranking official interactions because of pressure from China.
Among the delegation are Jagdish Shettigar, economic policy adviser to the BJP, Shyam Sunder, professor of accounting, economics and finance at the Yale School of Management, Y.S. Rajan, principal adviser of the Confederation of Indian Industry and M.D. Nalapat, professor of geopolitics and UNESCO Peace Chair at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
Jaya Jaitly, former president of India's Samata Socialist Party, will also attend the conference. She is the daughter of India's first-ever ambassador to Japan.
The conference "aims to promote awareness of potential areas of tripartite cooperation between India, Japan and Taiwan in the areas of economic growth and trade, high-tech industry, democratic development as well as other inter-regional issues of vital interest to each country," the Taiwan Thinktank said in a press release.
The think tank said it believes that an India-Japan-Taiwan strategic triangle will not only strengthen India-Taiwan and Japan-Taiwan relations, but also enhance interaction between India and Japan.
"This trilateral cooperation will undoubtedly consolidate the alliance of common values that each of these three countries shares: freedom, democracy, human rights and peace," it said.
Fernandes, who left office as defense minister this May, has maintained friendly connections with Taiwan. He is the first ministerial-level official in India to brave Beijing's pressure to meet with officials from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in New Delhi.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to