Taiwan urges India to improve bilateral relations in parallel with Beijing

Taiwan is persuading India to improve bilateral relations in parallel to New Delhi's ties with Beijing, a senior Taiwanese official said Wednesday. "We have no objections for India to make friends with any country in the world but not at the cost of Taiwan's relations with India. This is something (on which) we are very firm and urging the Indian government," Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India (TECC) Representative Ambassador Chung Kwang Tien said.

Taipei is hoping and urging the Indian government to develop relations between India and Taiwan to be parallel to ties with China, he said in an interview to PTI. According to him, several agreements signed between India and Taiwan in the recent past were "strong indicators" signifying their bilateral relations will not be affected by the influence of China.

The TECC is the Taiwan government's representative office in India. It is responsible for promoting bilateral relations in the areas of the economy, trade, investment, the media, tourism, culture, education and science and technology. Tien said there was no proposal from Taiwan at present to establish formal diplomatic relations with India.

He said that personally, he feels Beijing must also reciprocate on the one-India policy if it wants India to follow suit on the one-China policy. "I think that India also mentioned many times to China to show respect to the one-India policy. I think they should reciprocate in that manner," Tiem said, adding that this was his personal view.

Tien also said Taiwan wants to woo tourists from India through "soft power" exchanges from Bollywood, cricket, Buddhism and promoting itself as a shopping paradise. He said that he had personally invited Aamir Khan by writing a letter to him one-and-a-half-years ago but has not yet received a response.

"I have to say probably he (Aamir) did not receive it. I give him the benefit of doubt. I want to invite him (Aamir) to Taiwan to not only talk about movies but also on humanitarian issues. I consider him a great actor but he is even a better humanitarian," Tien said. The Ambassador also shared that he wants to invite Sachin Tendulkar to promote cricket in Taiwan.

"Cricket is in his (Sachin's) blood and he should promote the sport in countries which have never been touched by it like Taiwan," Tien said. The Bureau of Foreign Trade and Taiwan External Trade Development Council Wednesday announced that the second edition of 'Taiwan Expo' will be held here on May 16-18.

India has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The de facto Indian mission in Taipei is the India-Taipei Association and the Taiwanese maintain the Taipei Economic Cultural Centre in New Delhi Beijing opposes any official contact between Taiwan and other countries and has warned India in the past to strictly follow the "one-China" policy.

(With inputs from agencies.)