No change in India’s stance on Taiwan, clarifies MEA

There is no change in India’s position on Taiwan, with which New Delhi maintains economic, technology, and cultural ties, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, while responding to a Chinese foreign ministry readout that misquoted external affairs minister $ Jaishankar as saying that Taiwan is part of China.

- Rezaul H Laskar

The readout, issued first in Mandarin after midnight Indian time following a meeting between Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New Delhi on Monday, contained a lengthy paragraph with comments attributed to the external affairs minister. It included the line: “Taiwan is a part of China.” A subsequent readout in English contained a similar paragraph.

“There is no change in our position on Taiwan. We stressed that, like the rest of the world, India has a relationship with Taiwan that focuses on economi technology, and cultural ties,” one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. “We intend to continue it [the relationship],” the person added.