Sentiment between Taiwan and India has warmed considerably during the five years of the New Southbound Policy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is a need for deeper engagement in mid-level political and academic circles, a visiting expert on Taiwan-India relations said on Friday.
“Taiwan is considered one of the most important friendly countries for India,” but India is also “one of the most reluctant countries” when it comes to Taiwan, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation visiting fellow Sana Hashmi said on the sidelines of a forum on the New Southbound Policy in Taipei organized by the foundation and the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times).
As other democracies have become increasingly outspoken on Taiwan’s status — seen as recently as Friday in talks between the ruling parties of Taiwan and Japan — New Delhi has remained largely silent, for instance standing alone as one of the few like-minded nations to not call for Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly.
Although India has been reticent to provoke China, it “doesn’t mean that nothing is happening behind closed doors,” said Hashmi, who previously served as a consultant for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in addition to her extensive experience working for think tanks.
Since Taipei for the first time made India a key facet of its foreign relations under the New Southbound Policy, the most significant advancement has been in external outreach, Hashmi said.
“If you look at the leadership of Taiwan, you would realize that there is this warmth toward the New Southbound Policy countries, and specifically India,” she said.
Twitter has served as the primary stage for warming sentiment, with each side trading messages of support stemming from President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) birthday message to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September last year, followed by declarations of support after a diplomatic spat over Double Ten National Day celebrations in India.
These trending topics led to a surge in support for Tsai among Indians, who now consider her to be among the “most admirable” world leaders, Hashmi said.
In April, the Indian external ministry also took the extraordinary step of offering its condolences after the deadly Hualien train crash — the first time it has extended official sympathies since reciprocal offices were established in 1995.
Add to this Taiwan’s increasingly enthusiastic embrace of India, including a Diwali celebration last year held at the Taipei Guest House, and relations are on the right path, pushed even further along by the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hashmi said.
“Because of how Taiwan has handled the pandemic, it has generated this kind of curiosity in India” about this country that is living normally while also managing to help others, she said.
This has been reflected through what Hashmi has witnessed on her own online accounts.
Since a tweet she posted in June last year about Taipei’s Ningxia Night Market circulated widely online, she has made it her mission to keep sharing Taiwan’s beauty with her followers, hopefully sustaining interest in tourism once borders reopen.
However, while outreach and some basic exchanges have increased, there is still a lot that could be done under the framework of the New Southbound Policy, she said.
“As a people-centric policy, it’s important the focus should be on people,” she said, recommending more tourism and academic exchanges, especially in Mandarin language learning and social sciences.
Long-term scholarship is particularly important and conspicuously lacking, she said, citing the difficulty she has had finding other academics from the 18 New Southbound Policy countries in Taiwan and vice versa.
“We can’t just have one standalone event and then forget about it,” she said. “If Taiwan is not cultivating scholars on the New Southbound Policy, how are you going to convince the host countries or your partners that we are serious about you?”
There is also a need for further talks and exchanges that are “political in nature, but not official in nature,” similar to the political party talks and mid-level exchanges that have occurred with the US, Japan and other allies, Hashmi added.
Groups such as the Taiwan-India Parliamentary Friendship Association are important for awareness of each others’ expectations, she said, calling in particular for policy planning dialogue at the mid-official level.
While some criticize the New Southbound Policy as being aimed against China, one of its strengths is its ability to minimize China’s specter over Taiwan’s foreign relations.
“We do not need to see everything from China’s lens,” she said. “I think it is so important to realize that.”
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