The Case for a Pragmatic India-Taiwan Partnership
22 April 2019 6:14 AM GMT
India and Taiwan are keen to cultivate closer economic and cultural ties, but doing so will require concrete actions and political commitments.
- The Indian government's Act East policy already provides a framework for greater engagement between the states of northeastern India and Southeast Asia; this same framework also offers a concrete platform for Taiwan to make itself crucial to India's future economic growth.
- In addition to improving regional infrastructure connectivity for northeastern India, the Act East policy also encompasses strategic partnerships with a range of actors, including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam, as well as ASEAN.
- 31 In 2017, Taiwan's outward FDI to India (as a percentage of overall outward investment) stood at roughly 0.15 percent, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, even as 44 percent of Taiwan's outward FDI (driven chiefly by investments in electronics and information technology) landed in mainland China that same year.
- Former president Lee Deng-hui of the KMT (1988–2000) practiced "pragmatic diplomacy" ( wushi waijiao ) or, alternatively, "flexible diplomacy" ( tanxing waijiao ); this approach entailed trying to create greater international space for Taiwan by making its links to mainland China less pronounced.
- 86 Unlike earlier outreach efforts with a more singular focus on contract manufacturing, Tsai's new approach is built to leverage bilateral and multilateral cooperation on a range of fronts, including capital, human capital, technology, and cultural and educational exchanges.
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