The government of Taiwan announced on Wednesday that it will open a new representative office in the financial hub of Mumbai, establishing its third diplomatic office in India.
Taiwan’s previous two offices in India are the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centers (TECC) in New Delhi and Chennai. The center in Delhi, established in 1995, is considered Taiwan’s de facto embassy in India. India, meanwhile, maintains a similar office in Taipei. The two countries do not enjoy formal diplomatic relations.
The office in Mumbai will also be christened as a Taipei Economic and Cultural Center and will help to advance “substantive ties” with India, according to the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
“In recent years, cooperation between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Republic of India has witnessed significant progress in numerous domains, including economics and trade, science and technology, critical supply chains, culture, education, and traditional medicine,” the MOFA said in a statement on Wednesday.
MOFA noted that India “became the world’s fifth-largest economy in 2022, and becomes its most populous nation this year,” creating “enormous market and related business opportunities” that can best be explored by opening an office in the bustling financial hub and port city of Mumbai.
“Many countries have established consulates in Mumbai, including the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Australia,” the Taiwanese foreign ministry noted.
The Mumbai TECC will provide “visa services, document authentication, and emergency assistance” to Taiwanese nationals visiting western India, as well as promoting “exchanges and cooperation in science and technology, education, culture, and people-to-people ties.”
The Hindustan Times suspected Taiwan’s enthusiasm for opening a new office in Mumbai was partly driven by the deteriorating relationship between India and China. China is infuriating India with violent challenges to their Himalayan border and the whole world is nervous about Chinese supply chains after the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, while Taiwan has a lovely semiconductor industry that India would very much like to be a part of.
China usually pressures countries to break diplomatic and cultural ties with Taiwan, but India is increasingly less interested in hearing China’s objections to cooperating with the Taiwanese. The Hindustan Times noted that India no longer pays lip service to Beijing’s “One China” policy, which depicts Taiwan as a wayward province that will return to China’s control in the near future.
The Indian paper quoted sources who said Taiwan has been asking for permission to set up a new TECC in Mumbai for over two years and would never have announced such an office was in the works without the “concurrence” of the Indian government.
Taiwan’s ambassador to India, Baushuan Ger, told India’s WION News on Thursday that the Mumbai consulate will further Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy by promoting “exchanges and cooperation in science and technology, education, culture, and people-to-people ties between Taiwan and western India.”
The New Southbound Policy (NSP) was formulated by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. It is a strategy to increase Taiwan’s diplomatic presence in 18 friendly Southeast Asian nations, including India, by leveraging Taiwan’s “cultural, educational, technological, agricultural, and economic assets.”
Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with any of the nations listed in the NSP, so Tsai’s idea was to create a “sense of economic community” among them, creating a loose regional association that sees Taiwan as a natural member while avoiding the type of aggressive diplomacy that might aggravate Beijing.
The essence of the NSP is to help these other countries see Taiwan as a friend without necessarily asking them to view China as an enemy — but it makes Taiwan’s job easier when the Chinese are recklessly alienating an NSP country such as India.
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu recently told reporters that Taiwan has an “enormous appetite” for expanding its ties with the “rising power” of India. Wu said his government has been encouraging Taiwanese companies to move manufacturing facilities from the Chinese mainland to India as they diversify their supply chains.