India offers an alternative to the US and China’s competitive world order.
Taipei: India officially overtook Japan to become the fourth largest global economy at $4 trillion, declared its officials this week. The country is estimated to become the third largest economy by 2027. This rise of an Asian democracy will have a larger geo-economic impact creating new opportunities and challenges for the world at large, particularly for countries in the Global South.
It should interest Taiwan too for India’s economic rise wouldn’t just mean increased possibilities of trade, investment and an alternate manufacturing hub to China but this growth would make it more assertive geopolitically-increasing its weight at multilateral forums and providing it with more resources for a greater footprint globally. India is an ally that Taiwan can’t miss towards its march towards the mid-century.
Both India and Taiwan elected new governments in 2024-After coming to power, both President Lai Ching-te and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted their bilateral ties for trade and economy but there’s lot more that comes into the dynamics of their poignant relationship by virtue of what India’s economic rise creates in the global scheme of things. Here’s a list along with what it offers to Taiwan:
- India offers an alternative to the US and China’s competitive world order. As a leading power after the giants constantly locking horns, India offers a stable democracy with a very dynamic and diverse framework enriched by pragmatism; humility and tradition that reinforces adherence to universal values.
- India offers a massive, young demography to the world-its median age is 28 years and there are over 600 million people between the age group of 25-35 years in India. The country is going to drive global labour and immigration trends. It has particularly much in store for aging demographics in the east and the west. It can offer people, for both labour intensive sectors like manufacturing as well as engineers, doctors and nurses. Its population in the north east regions could be of special interest to Taiwan because it houses austroasitiac tribes with similarities and connection with the austronesian tribes, the indigenous tribes of Taiwan. The relationship is untapped and unidentified and needs more focus.
3: India and Taiwan share a common knowledge heritage. Since the Chinese civilization lost gravely in the Cultural Revolution period and contemporary Taiwan didn’t inherit much of its built civilizational heritage, India has the ability to help Taiwan revive many aspects of its lost civilizational heritage spanning areas of ancient linguistics, Buddhist studies, traditional art and architecture and other aspects of collaborative cultural studies. This way India can contribute to Taiwan’s unique and evolving cultural identity in the Indo-Pacific region.
4: India and Taiwan in addition to being part of the non-red supply chain conglomerate, also possess two rapidly growing innovation and start-up ecosystems across various sectors. India is the third largest start-up ecosystem globally while Taiwan is ranked fourth. It’s important for Taiwan and India to establish joint innovation hubs to fuel collaborative innovation. This can also help to set up a joint protection mechanism for non-red intellectual property which is certainly an asset in today’s geopolitical scheme of things.
5: India and Taiwan have common allies in the Quad, an Indo-pacific alliance that consists of the US, Japan, Australia and India. Taiwan isn’t a part of this alliance but the security interests of Taiwan directly impact Japan and the United States. Anything happening to these partners would solicit a response from India plus any disruption to the sea trade around Taiwan waters would impact India directly.
6: India greatly respects Taiwan’s resilience. India understands by experience what colonialism did to countries in the Global South and India respects those resilient societies that chose democracy and economic vision while working hard to uphold their sovereignty. Though India is yet to recognize Taiwan as a nation because of the complex, persisting geopolitical context that defines Taiwan, India understands Taiwan’s value for upholding democracy in the Indo-Pacific. Taiwan, a country of just 23 million, has foreign reserves of $578 billion compared to $685.7 billion of India, a nation of over 1.4 billion. India understands what focus and persistent hard work it took Taiwan to be an achiever. Indians can take Taiwan’s story as a real story of rejuvenation.
Venus Upadhayaya is a MOFA 2025 Taiwan Fellow from India.