Taiwan to open new mission in Mumbai, keen to expand tech, trade ties with India amid China's muscle-flexing

Taiwan is set to expand its quasi-diplomatic presence in India, where many of its technology companies want to set up manufacturing bases in the wake of its escalating tension with China.

A new Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre will be set up in Mumbai to “expand mutually beneficial trade and investment opportunities between Taiwan and India”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the self-ruled island stated on Wednesday.

India does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The India-Taipei Association, which is headed by a diplomat, functions as New Delhi’s de facto diplomatic and consular mission of India in the capital of Taiwan. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) in New Delhi similarly serves as the de facto diplomatic and consular mission of Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (RoC), in the capital of India.

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The TECC coming up in Mumbai will be the third in India. The first one in New Delhi had been set up in 1995 and the second in Chennai in 2012.

Since the TECC was set up in Chennai, nearly 60% of all Taiwanese businesses investing and opening factories in India have chosen to develop their operations in the southern states of the country. “Chennai and its surrounding areas have thus benefited from the investments made by Taiwanese manufacturing industries,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of the Government of the RoC said. “The establishment of the TECC in Mumbai is expected to have a similar effect in western India.”

The move comes amid China’s belligerence and military muscle-flexing around Taiwan, which escalated tension between the communist country and the United States. With the fear of military aggression by China looming large over Taiwan, many technology companies based in the island are exploring options to set up manufacturing units in India, the US and the countries in Europe.

Taiwan’s Hon Hai Technology Group, a.k.a. Foxconn, is likely to start manufacturing iPhones for Apple Inc at its proposed manufacturing facility at Devanahalli in Karnataka by April 2024. It is also planning to expand its manufacturing facility in Chennai. Besides, the company is also likely to invest in a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Gujarat, along with other partners.

Taipei has been conveying to New Delhi its interest in expanding bilateral cooperation in critical and emerging technologies.

The One-China policy recognizes only the People's Republic of China, which came into existence in 1949 after the communists defeated the nationalists in the civil war of China. It does not recognize the existence of Taiwan (or the Republic of China), where the nationalists retreated to and based the seat of their government after losing to the communists. India, like most of the other nations, has been adhering to the One-China policy since 1949, recognizing only the People's Republic of China. That is why India and Taiwan do not have formal diplomatic and consular missions in their respective countries.

A spokesperson of the Government of the RoC said that the new TECC in Mumbai would help expand Taiwan’s economic ties with India under its new southbound policy. It would also promote exchanges between Taiwan and India as well as bilateral cooperation in science and technology, education and culture. It would help promote people-to-people ties between Taiwan and western India, apart from providing visa services, document authentication and emergency assistance to businesspeople, tourists, and citizens of RoC in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh, as well as the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, according to an official statement released in Taipei.