On 8 October 2025, Kartini Sunityo, Partnership Manager at Asia Centre, represented the Centre at the inaugural New Southbound Policy+ (NSP+) Think Tank Summit on “Prospects for a Resilient Indo-Pacific Policy” in Taipei, Taiwan. Hosted by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF) in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the event marked a significant step forward for regional policy dialogue and civic diplomacy.
The NSP+ Think Tank Summit serves as a platform for prominent institutions across the Indo-Pacific to engage in policy-focused dialogue and explore avenues for collaboration. Key themes included security resilience, democratic resilience, and the development of supply chains independent of authoritarian influence. Asia Centre was among more than twenty leading international network organisations invited to participate in this inaugural edition of what is set to become a biennial convening.
In Session II: “Democratic Resilience Chain: Defending Shared Values Across the Indo-Pacific with Taiwan as a Key Partner”, Asia Centre’s Kartini identified key democratic challenges in the region—including electoral erosion, disinformation, surveillance, and AI-enabled social control—citing Indonesia and Thailand as examples. Framing these issues as an opportunity for an Asian-led action, she urged a strategic, long-term approach that views democracy as both a core value and a security imperative, grounded in local contexts and strengthened by civil society. Highlighting Taiwan’s crucial role alongside Japan and South Korea, she emphasised the importance of multilateral partnerships, grassroots engagement, and sustained investment in democratic research and development, capacity-strengthening, and movement-building.
Asia Centre’s participation in the Summit reflects its ongoing partnership with TAEF, one that has steadily deepened over several years.
On 18–21 September 2025, Dr. James Gomez served as a discussant in the opening roundtable of “The Evolving Crisis of Democracy in Asia: Challenges and Resolutions”, co-organised by Asia Centre, TAEF, and the Advanced Research Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences (ARCHS) in Taiwan. The session, “Democracy in Crisis and Possible Ways Forward,” reaffirmed Asia Centre’s role in regional democratic discourse.
Earlier, on 4 April 2025, during Asia Centre’s forum “Youths, Democracy & Electoral Legitimacy in Asia”, TAEF Executive Director Dr. Alan H. Yang shared Taiwan’s experience in youth activism and called for stronger connections with Southeast Asian youth networks.
On 18 March 2025, during the 8th Yushan Forum in Taipei, Asia Centre’s Regional Director Dr. James Gomez and TAEF Chairman Dr. Michael Hsiao signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), committing both institutions to joint efforts in think tank collaboration, NGO networking, policy research, and public dialogue.
The foundations of this partnership date back to December 2019, when Asia Centre’s Dr. James Gomez, Dr. Robin Ramcharan, and Charlotte Yuchun Tseng met with TAEF’s Executive Director Dr. Alan H. Yang, Director and Senior Research Fellow Sherry H.C. Liu, and Assistant Research Fellow Nina Ning Yen on the sidelines of the 3rd Biennial Southeast Asian Studies Conference (SEASIA) in Taipei to explore avenues for future collaboration.
Together, Asia Centre and TAEF continue to champion democratic resilience and regional cooperation for a stronger, more connected Indo-Pacific relation.
