Taiwan is currently navigating a complex array of foreign policy and domestic challenges. In December, EVA Air will launch five weekly direct flights between Taipei and New Delhi, a pivotal step in removing practical barriers to Taiwan-India relations. Simultaneously, Taiwan faces ongoing Chinese gray zone operations across Asia, even as it reinforces European ties through a historic Polish parliamentary visit. On the domestic front, the nation recently ended a record-breaking 266-day legislative delay to pass its annual budget amid intense cross-caucus friction.

The new EVA Air flights aim to foster sustainable, frequent bilateral engagement through tourism, academic exchanges, business partnerships, and people-to-people connections. This connectivity is a central pillar of Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy Plus, a people-centric diplomatic framework tied to its broader Indo-Pacific strategy.

However, Sana Hashmi, a fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation who notes her views are personal, suggests that Taiwan’s broader strategic and economic focus on India has diminished. Taipei often views New Delhi through an outdated, reactive lens. For example, Taiwan incorrectly interprets India’s efforts to stabilize relations with China as proof that New Delhi is pivoting toward Beijing. In reality, managing Chinese ties does not mean India is abandoning Taiwan. India deliberately minimizes the “China factor” in its ongoing cooperation with Taipei, a nuance that goes unappreciated in Taiwan.

Furthermore, Hashmi points out that Taiwan continues to view global relations primarily through the lens of US-China competition. Some in Taiwan mistakenly perceive growing differences between India and the United States as a weakening of the Indo-Pacific framework. Instead, regional nations are doubling down on their own strategic interests while increasingly questioning Washington’s transactional approach and reliability.

While the US remains Taipei’s most important security partner, Washington’s unpredictability necessitates that Taiwan diversify its global partnerships. By focusing less exclusively on the West, Taiwan can develop an independent India strategy, recognizing New Delhi’s indispensable role as a critical actor in a free, open, and resilient Indo-Pacific. A strengthened New Southbound Policy Plus must clearly articulate this vision. While regional allies may not offer direct military support during a Taiwan Strait conflict, their sustained engagement could apply other forms of non-military pressure on China to contribute to deterrence. Investing in Indian relations ensures Taiwan has vital regional resilience and support when it matters most.

On a broader regional security level, China has spent the last 15 years utilizing gray zone operations to advance its territorial ambitions across Asia. These tactics engineer difficult calculations for targeted nations by creating conditions that are neither peace nor war. Chinese military forces act provocatively and dangerously while strictly avoiding armed violence, whereas law enforcement units deploy nonlethal violence as a primary tactic. Although the US has struggled to formulate a response over the past decade and a half, the open door for Beijing’s unchallenged aggression may finally be closing.

Meanwhile, Taipei is concurrently bolstering its European relationships. Late last month, President William Lai (賴清德) hosted a delegation of Polish European Parliament members at the Presidential Office. Led by former Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, the group also met with Legislative Yuan Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), a gesture spanning Taiwan’s political divide. This visit was highly significant, marking the first time in nearly two terms that a single-party, single-nation delegation from the EU legislature has visited Taipei. Within that same fortnight, Ken Moriyasu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, emphasized the importance of this diplomatic timing in the Washington Examiner.

Domestically, Taiwan’s legislative branch has faced intense gridlock. On Friday at 6:08 p.m., the government’s annual budget for this year was finally approved after a record delay of 266 days. The glacial progression culminated in a dramatic cross-caucus negotiation meeting on Tuesday, during which Speaker Han lost his temper. Han shockingly declared that the legislative branch is now somehow under the control of “dark forces.” His ire was targeted at Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁), who was notably absent that day, continuing a wider pattern of failing to attend the cross-caucus negotiations.