In boost to ties, Taiwan to set up office in Mumbai

In a significant step aimed at boosting economic linkages, Taiwan on Wednesday announced it would open its third representative office in India in Mumbai, more than a decade after it last expanded its presence in India.

In a significant step aimed at boosting economic linkages, Taiwan on Wednesday announced it would open its third representative office in India in Mumbai, more than a decade after it last expanded its presence in India.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said the move to establish in Mumbai a Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) — the term used to describe Taiwan’s de facto diplomatic missions because India and Taiwan do not maintain formal diplomatic relations — came in the light of Taiwan and India witnessing “significant progress in numerous domains, including economics and trade, science and technology, critical supply chains”.

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Talks to open a TECC in Mumbai have been long in the works, following the opening of the TECC in Chennai in 2012, which has emerged as a hub for Taiwanese firms. “The TECC in Mumbai will help expand mutually beneficial trade and investment opportunities between Taiwan and India,” the statement said, adding that it “will provide visa services, document authentication, and emergency assistance to businesspeople, tourists, and Taiwanese nationals” in western India.

While India and Taiwan do not maintain formal diplomatic ties, the two sides in 1995 decided to open a TECC in New Delhi and an “India Taipei Association” in Taipei, which was a “turning point” to promote relations, said Ashok Kantha, former Indian Ambassador to China and Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi, who was at the time involved in setting up the offices as head of the China desk in the Ministry of External Affairs.

“The move in 1995 proved to be a turning point as we put in place the requisite institutional framework for promoting India-Taiwan relations,” Mr. Kantha told The Hindu. “The Chennai office in 2012 was then instrumental in southern India becoming a hub for Taiwanese investment. Today, we are on the cusp of a major expansion for a number of reasons. There is a critical mass and more importantly, the requisite strategic interest for both sides in the context of what is happening geopolitically, and the restructuring of global and regional value chains.”

Mr. Kantha said opening the TECC in Mumbai thus had its own strong logic, and was not necessarily linked to the current downturn in India-China relations, which have been in a state of freeze since Chinese transgressions across the Line of Actual Control starting in April 2020.