Lithuania can name Taiwan office in Vilnius however it wants

Lithuania has the right to decide what to call Taiwan's representative office in the country, despite China's objections, a US Department of State official said in Vilnius on Wednesday.

“It's up to you what you wanna name that office. It's up to Lithuania. It's not up to Beijing. That was the decision that was taken by the Lithuanian government in terms of how they want to identify that office,” Matthew Murray, senior bureau official in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, told reporters.

“It's not acceptable for Beijing to respond in a bullying, coercive manner,” he added.

Taiwan is planning to open its economic representative office in Vilnius by the end of the year.

Lithuania's decision to allow Taipei to open a representative office under the name ‘Taiwan’ has angered Beijing which views the self-ruling island as part of China.

Elsewhere in the world, Taiwan's representative offices operate under the name of Taipei, in line with an international consensus that this does not run counter to the One China policy which prevents Taiwan from being treated as a separate state.

Taiwan | AP nuotr.

Murray said that it was Lithuania's right to establish economic and cultural relations with Taiwan, especially given the island's economic potential.

“For us, the US, Taiwan is our tenth largest trade partner,” he said.

The Department of State official said that Washington supported Vilnius in the face of China's aggressive behaviour.

In communicating and developing relations with China, the US, Lithuania and other like-minded countries must act together and make it clear to Beijing that political and economic pressure is unacceptable, according to him.

Beijing, China | AP nuotr.

“When it comes to economic coercion from China, the only way to deal with bullying behaviour is to stand up to bullying behaviour,” Murray said.

“The problem that we've seen in other countries, when you don't stand up and you don't take the position like you are taking right know, then a year or two, or three goes down the track, then you are more dependent on China, at which point the cost is greater,” he said.

The US official said that the search for new markets in the Indo-Pacific region could help offset potential trade losses with China.

He also underlined the importance of creating new global supply chains to reduce dependence on Beijing.