"India-Taiwan dialogue is a track-two effort between our think tanks," says Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation fellow Sana Hashmi

New Delhi [India], October 31 : The Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation and India's Observer Research Foundation (ORF) are conducting an India-Taiwan "track-two dialogue" in the national capital. Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation fellow Sana Hashmi is one of the key participants.

"So I'm in India to be a participant in the India-Taiwan dialogue. So that's a track-two dialogue that is between my think-tank in Taiwan, that's Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation, and India's premier think-tank Observer Research Foundation," Hashmi said.

She added that the dialogue was "an outcome of a partnership that was signed in 2022," explaining that the two sides "conduct India-Taiwan dialogue alternatively one year in India and one year in Taiwan."

"This year it was ORF's turn to host. We did it on the sidelines of Sagarmanthan: The Great Oceans Dialogue. And I think that is the first institutionalised dialogue, track-two dialogue between India and Taiwan," she said.

Hashmi described the initiative as a "coherent, consistent dialogue between think tanks," where participants assess "what has been done till now, what is the status of the relationship and what could be done."

She said the discussions this year were "very policy-oriented," focusing first on economic and trade ties and then on security issues. "The theme was first of all to discuss the economic and trade relationship and how has been the investment relationship between India and Taiwan," she noted, adding that "we had another session that was on security and beyond."

Acknowledging the dominant focus on security when it comes to Taiwan, she said, "We work in Taiwan and we have this idea that Taiwan should just not be looked at through the security lens."

Discussing the progress in bilateral ties, Hashmi said she had "a very positive outlook on India-Taiwan relationship." She added, "The trade relations have improved significantly. For the very first time, India-Taiwan trade relationship has crossed the 10 billion mark. Investment is steadily increasing. There's still a long way to go, but it's absolutely increasing."

Highlighting the growing cooperation in key sectors, she said, "India has substantial interest being the semiconductor trade and commerce. And I just see that it is actually moving on the upward trajectory."

Hashmi also underlined that "India has actually dehyphenated India-Taiwan relation from India-China relationship," stating that "we have recognised that we have interest and we are going to operate and act upon our interest."

On the semiconductor front, she said, "Even if you do not want to discuss semiconductor, it just comes automatically. We did discuss semiconductor cooperation. I think this is the most important aspect when we talk about Taiwan-India relation."

She confirmed that the dialogue covered "the cooperation and the ongoing cooperation between the PSMC as well as Tata," and added, "India does expect more investment, more assistance from Taiwan. It will take some time to come, but it is happening."

Hashmi further said that the discussions also explored "the EV sector" and the importance of building "a strong people-to-people component between India and Taiwan."

"We actually visited the Mumbai office that was recently opened. It shows how there is more presence of Taiwan in India and there should be more presence of India in Taiwan," she said.

According to Hashmi, the potential of "direct connectivity between India and Taiwan" was also discussed. "I always say that for anything, we could discuss anything about Taiwan and India. But first thing what we need to do is to perhaps complete the basics in India-Taiwan relation," she stated.

"For that, we need to have more scholarship between India and Taiwan. We need to have more students studying in India, Taiwanese students coming to India and Indian students going to Taiwan," she said, adding that "the first and foremost thing is that we need to establish direct connectivity between India and Taiwan."

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