Director’s Opening Remarks: Joint VIF-PF Seminar on ‘China’s Internal Dynamics, Relations with India & Cyber Security’, 01 Nov 2017

On behalf of the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), I welcome Dr. Tan-Sun Chen, Former Foreign Minister of Taiwan, and Chairman, the Prospect Foundation (PF)), Dr. I-Chung Lai, President, PF, and rest of the delegation.

This is a very important delegation as it is the first one after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The VIF delegation has already visited Taiwan in November 2016 and this is the second visit by the PF this year.

In May 2017 we had discussed:-

a. 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: Issues, Personalities and Challenges;
b. Foreign Policy and Security Challenges including PLA Modernisation and US-Taiwan Relations;
c. New South-bound Policy and Act East Policy: Prospect of Strategic Cooperation between India and Taiwan.
d.
Although India does not recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state, its functional and people-to-people contacts with Taiwan are well explained under the Look East - Act East Policy. Under the ‘Act East Policy’ Taiwan has become important for India. In 1995 the two countries established representative offices in each other’s capitals, namely Taipei Economic and Cultural Center (TECC) in New Delhi and India-Taipei Association (ITA) in Taipei.

In 1999, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Taiwan as the General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janta Party. He is one of the few Indian politicians who has visited Taiwan. He also hosted the Taiwanese Business delegation in India as the Chief Minister of Gujrat in 2011. Former President Ma Ying-Jeou made a stopover at Mumbai International Airport en route to Africa in April 2012. President Tsai Ing-Wen visited India in July of the same year as the former Chairperson of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Economic relations between the sides are on an ascending trajectory. The bilateral trade between India and Taiwan has grown nearly five-fold from USD 1.19 billion in 2001 to more than USD 6 billion 2016. Around 90 Taiwanese companies have set up business operations in India, with the total investment amount of USD 1.4 billion in the fields of information and communication technology, medical devices, automobile components, machinery, steel, electronics, construction, engineering, financial services. Governments and industries of India and Taiwan are engaging in “Make in India,” “Digital India,” “Skill India,” and “Startup India” initiatives for shared growth.

There are many Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) signed on Scientific and Technological Cooperation between TECC and ITA. Another MoU of cooperation was signed between Taiwan’s Academia Sinica and Indian National Science Academy in 2012. Till 2016, a total of 72 projects and joint proposals have been carried out. Many Indian students and scholar have got opportunity to study and research in Taiwan under the “Taiwan Scholarship” and “Huayu Enrichment Scholarship” provided by government of Taiwan.

At the strategic level, the geopolitical developments in the Indo-Pacific region are of concerns for both India and Taiwan. The developments in the East China Sea and the South China Sea are of major concerns for both the sides.

Themes set out for today’s discussions are very important and affect both the sides. Xi Jinping in his speech at the 19th Party Congress has mentioned that “the One-China principle is the political foundation of cross-Straits relations.” We look forward to know more about this and overall analysis of the 19th Party Congress from the delegation and its implications at global, regional and bilateral levels. Recently, India and China were embroiled in a 73 day face-off at the Doklam area. This was resolved by an “expeditious disengagement” of the troops from the both sides. The development in the bilateral relation post-Doklam is also an important subject because it coincided with the 19th Party Congress. The third theme of discussion, China’s Rising Cyber Power is an emerging non-traditional security issue in the India-China relations. An assessment of how India and Taiwan can cooperate in this field will be a new area of cooperation between India and Taiwan.

I look forward to a fruitful discussion during this one-day discussion. - Dr Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF