The Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF) and India’s National Maritime Foundation (NMF) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding at the Yushan Forum to deepen Taiwan-India cooperation in maritime affairs and regional development.
The signing of the memorandum marks the think tanks’ consensus on maintaining regional prosperity and peace, which could serve as a foundation for Taiwan-India relations, the TAEF said.
Yesterday afternoon, TAEF president Michael Hsiao (蕭新煌) and NMF secretary-general Pradeep Chauhan presided over the signing via videoconferencing.
The NMF, founded in 2005, is India’s primary think tank on maritime issues. It conducts research and analysis of India’s maritime issues in close cooperation with the Indian Navy.
Hsiao said that the agreement marks the beginning of collaboration that would join research on the Pacific and Indian oceans.
In line with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed Indo-Pacific Ocean Initiative, India must develop a supportive framework for the initiative, requiring feedback from India’s officials, policymakers and academics, as well as from around the world, Chauhan said.
The foundations are to regularly hold online seminars and expect to arrange visits once disease prevention measures have lessened, he added.
The memorandum, which is a step up from private collaborations, would help to create a more inclusive Indo-Pacific region, TAEF executive officer Yang Hao (楊昊) said.
Yang echoed Chauhan’s comments on planned forums and visits, saying that the forums would hopefully persuade Indian policymakers to give more weight to Taiwan-Indian cooperation on regional issues.
Yesterday, in their first “closed door” meeting, the think tanks shared their views on the Indian initiative and Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy, and established mutual goals, Yang said.
The New Southbound Policy aims to observe and deepen interaction with partner nations, expand collaborative efforts, and promote mutually friendly environments to further economic, industrial, technological, educational, cultural and tourism partnerships.
The partner countries under the policy are the 10 ASEAN members, plus Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The meeting also hoped to lay the groundwork for collaborations, Yang added.
The TAEF said that the deal could serve as a foundation for future Taiwan-India talks.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods