Analysis: Taiwan-India Relations Will Not Be Impacted by China-India Engagement

TaiwanPlus News

Following a Chinese readout of Foreign Minister Wang Yi's meeting with his Indian counterpart claiming that India acknowledged Taiwan as part of China, India said that its relationship with Taiwan has not changed. Sana Hashmi from the Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation says that even if India-China relations thaw, India will continue to engage with Taiwan as a key technological and business partner.

Transcript

00:00China's readout from the foreign minister's meeting has stated that India had stated

00:04Taiwan is a part of China. However, this differs from the Indian version, which said that there

00:09was no change in the relationship between Taiwan and India. So why is there a difference and what

00:15does it signify? You know, we have always seen that there has been a difference in statements

00:20and readout that have come out of China and other countries. But with India, it was not really a

00:26norm. And Taiwan was never a part of the discussion specifically publicly. So there are a number of

00:32reasons why this happened. First, we have already seen that the Ministry of External Affairs,

00:38Government of India, they've already clarified that, of course, not in so many words, but this is what

00:43they implied that they never said that Taiwan is a part of China. So in fact, the Indian readout

00:49actually mentions that the Chinese side mentioned Taiwan and they urge India not to engage with

00:56Taiwan. But India's position has been that Taiwan is an important economic technology partner. So

01:04that is definitely a denial of what China said in the readout. So why they did it as in, of course,

01:10and they didn't really do it in the English readout initially, they did it in the Chinese

01:16Mandarin version of the readout. So this was primarily aimed at the domestic audiences as well as

01:23from for the people in Taiwan. If India China ties were to thaw at all,

01:28would there be an impact on the relationship between India and Taiwan?

01:33So even if India China relations, if we have to say it, if they become cordial, they become

01:40normalized again, even if there is a huge transformation in the relationship, I do not really

01:45think that it is going to have any impact on India-Taiwan relations. And why I'm saying it,

01:49because India has never used Taiwan as a card against China. India was not really closing up

01:55to Taiwan because of the differences with China. India was reaching out to Taiwan primarily because

02:01it understood, it acknowledged that Taiwan could be an important, could be a key economic and

02:07technological partner. So I think that was the entire rationale behind India's outreach to Taiwan.

02:12And this is not going to change just because India-China relations are going to be

02:17normalized and going to, you know, if there is going to be a reset in the relationship.

02:23What would it mean for the wider Asia-Pacific region if India and China were to come closer

02:28on economy or trade?

02:30So these meetings and, you know, prime minister meeting and going to China in a couple of days is

02:37not about engaging with the Chinese. First of all, it's about being present in the multilateral forum.

02:44And secondly, it's about how to secure India's interest when there is a rift with the US and when

02:51the US is not very much present in the region. So, you know, I think that, of course, Indo-Pacific is

02:57important and the countries in the region are absolutely holding the fort. They are cooperating,

03:03engaging bilaterally and at the regional levels vanish. But of course, what we need and what is

03:07more critical is that the US continued presence in the region, which is sadly not there. So in the

03:14absence of the US presence, what the countries could do is to ensure that the region is stabilized,

03:20the region is peaceful. And how do we do it? Of course, there is more cooperation among the

03:24like-minded countries, but also to minimize tension with China is one of the ways to go about it.

03:30So I think this is exactly what countries such as India, Australia, and even Japan to that to some

03:35extent is doing.

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