A number of like-minded countries have placed ASEAN and its centrality at the core of their Indo-Pacific strategies. Likewise, Taiwan has emphasized the importance of Southeast Asian countries for its own policy vision. The emergence of the Indo-Pacific construct has provided further thrust for Taiwan to expand its external engagement. This complements Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy.
There is little doubt that Taiwan’s policy framework and external outreach to the Southeast Asian region has been an encouraging story. This is one reason that when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) introduced her administration’s flagship proposal, the New Southbound Policy, she included the 10