25 years of friendship

• India and Taiwan are celebrating 25 years of their partnership.
• Mutual efforts between Delhi and Taipei have enabled a range of bilateral agreements covering agriculture, investment, customs cooperation, civil aviation, industrial cooperation and other areas.
• This growing relationship indicates that the time has come to recalibrate India-Taiwan relations.

Recalibrating relationship

1) Creating political framework

• Both partners have increasingly deepened mutual respect underpinned by openness, with democracy and diversity as the key principles for collective growth.
• To make this relationship more meaningful, both sides can create a group of empowered persons or a task force to chart out a road map in a given time frame.

2) Cooperation in healthcare

• Taiwan’s handling of the pandemic and its support to many other countries underlines the need to deepen healthcare cooperation.
• India and Taiwan already collaborate in the area of traditional medicine.
• The time is ripe to expand cooperation in the field of healthcare.

3) Bio-friendly technologies

• Stubble burning and an associated decline in air quality has become a challenge for Indian government.
• Taiwan could be a valuable partner in dealing with this challenge through its bio-friendly technologies.
• Such technologies convert agricultural waste into value-added and environmentally beneficial renewable energy or biochemicals.
• This will be a win-win situation as it will help in dealing with air pollution and also enhance farmers’ income.
• Further, New Delhi and Taipei can also undertake joint research and development initiatives in the field of organic farming.

4) Cultural exchange

• India and Taiwan need to deepen people-to-people connect.
• Cultural exchange is the cornerstone of any civilisational exchange.
• However, Taiwanese tourists in India are a very small number.
• The Buddhist pilgrimage tour needs better connectivity and visibility, in addition to showcasing incredible India’s diversity. .
• With the Taiwan Tourism Bureau partnering with Mumbai Metro, Taiwan is trying to raise awareness about the country and increase the inflow of Indian tourists.

5) Deepening economic ties

• India’s huge market provides Taiwan with investment opportunities.
• The signing of a bilateral trade agreement in 2018 was an important milestone.
• Taiwan’s reputation as the world leader in semiconductor and electronics complements India’s leadership in ITES (Information Technology-Enabled Services).
• This convergence of interests will help create new opportunities.
• Despite the huge potential, Taiwan investments have been paltry in India.
• Taiwanese firms find the regulatory and labour regime daunting.

Consider the question “Though mutual efforts between Delhi and Taipei have enabled a range of bilateral agreements, the time has come to recalibrate India-Taiwan relations” In light of this, discuss the ways in which the two countries can deepen bilateral relations and increase cooperation.

Conclusion

The two countries have much to cooperate and build the relationship on. What is needed is the political will to recalibrate the relationship.

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