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.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS