Gandhinagar: A high-level academic, research and incubation dialogue between India and Taiwan was organised at the Raksha Shakti University in collaboration with the Prospect Foundation, Taiwan, today – 16 September 2020. During this program, Taiwan was represented by Ambassador Chung-Kwang Tien, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs & Chancellor, Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs, Taiwan, Dr Tan-sun Chen, Chairman, Prospect Foundation, Dr Ming-Shih Shen, Director, Graduate Institute of Strategic Studies, War College, National Defense University, and Ms Vivian Huang, Director General, International Division, Institute for Information Industry.

From India’s side, Lt Gen S.L. Narasimhan, Director-General, Centre of Contemporary China Studies, Ministry of External Affairs, Mr Krishan Varma, Special Secretary (Retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, and Professor Bimal N Patel, Director-General, Raksha Shakti University (RSU) made presentations. Dr Tan-sun Chen, Chairman, Prospect Foundation emphasised the importance of having collaborative initiatives in a wide range of fields between India and Taiwan with special focus on logistics and supply chain management.

Professor Patel, RSU DG, enumerated several areas of cooperation between both the Institutions for carrying out a wide range of academic and research initiatives. A specialised Chinese language study program to be taught at the RSU, in collaboration with the Asia University, Taiwan has already been offered at the RSU. Dr Patel stated that Taiwanese expertise in areas such as training women police officers, counter insurgency and counter terrorism, among others, can greatly benefit India’s efforts to strengthen its security infrastructure.

Dr Patel seconded Dr Chen’s point with regards to leveraging the strengths of both the nations in order to develop a robust logistics and supply chain management system in the country. In its quest to contribute towards the objective of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, the Raksha Shakti University, through its Security and Scientific Technical Research Association (SASTRA), is looking forward to developing indigenous defence technologies and tools in the country. Dr Patel iterated the fact that Taiwan can become a very strong partner for India to collaborate in various fields as mentioned above for achieving common objectives of peace, stability, and prosperity in the region.

Speakers and participants exchanged and agreed on several areas of collaboration – information technology, security, police, supply chain and logistics at various levels and forums and leverage great potential India and Taiwan have towards contributing the democratic, rule based economic and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

Senior academic scholars, researchers, government officials, and diplomats from both nations attended the Dialogue. It is worth noting that the Raksha Shakti University (RSU) is being elevated as a Central University to be renamed as Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) and is being accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance. This event is among a series of such programmes being organised by the University to expand its academic and research footprint across the globe.