EVENTS

What are the converging interests between India’s Act East Policy (AEP) and Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP) in Southeast Asia? Having been implemented independently from each other ever since their conceptualisations, the AEP and NSP have entered the age of Indo-Pacific cooperation in lieu of their potential harmonisation with ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP). With US-China trade-technological rivalry likely to be the major geo-economic backdrop in the Indo-Pacific region, regional stakeholders such as India, Taiwan, and ASEAN, stand to capitalise on the securitisation of industrial supply chain and overall boost of trade resilience─which are by far, the two megatrends regulating other countries’ adaptation to the great power rivalry between Washington and Beijing. This presentation will seek to explain the converging strategic interests of both India and Taiwan in engaging Southeast Asia within the current geo-economic climate, identify new frontiers of cooperation between New Delhi and Taipei within this diverse region, and enumerate the challenges faced by both Indo-Pacific stakeholders in fostering deeper cooperation with Southeast Asia.

About the Speaker

Karl Chee Leong LEE is a Senior Lecturer for the Institute of China Studies (ICS) University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Advisor to the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia (TWCHAM); Expert Advisor to Market Research Future, and Editor-in-Chief for the Scopus-indexed International Journal of China Studies (IJCS). His research interests include China-ASEAN cooperation, Taiwan-Southeast Asia relations, Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP), semiconductor diplomacy, US-China semiconductor geopolitics, and its impacts on Southeast Asia. His recent publications are Taiwan and Southeast Asia: Soft Power and Hard Truths Facing China’s Ascendancy and Southward Bound: Examining the Regional Policies of Taiwan and South Korea.

About the Chair

Aravind Yelery is an Associate Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and holds a PhD in Chinese Studies. He is also a Visiting Faculty at the Fudan School of Management, Shanghai, and an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies. In 2019, he won the Best Courseware Project Funds Award at Peking University. He has co-edited Tailspin: The Politics of India-China Economic Relations (London: Routledge, 2021) and authored China Inc.: Between State Capitalism and Economic Statecraft (New Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2021).

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