Taiwan has not received a request to change the name of its de facto embassy in Lithuania, its foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
"Neither our country's Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania nor the Foreign Ministry has ever received a request from the Lithuanian government to change the Chinese or English name," Reuters quoted the ministry as saying.
The comment comes in response to an earlier report by Reuters that Lithuanian officials are discussing whether to ask Taiwan to modify the name.
According to Reuters sources, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis proposed to the country’s president last week to modify the Chinese version of the representation name to refer to “Taiwanese people”.
Lithuania has been under de facto Chinese economic blockade after Vilnius allowed Taiwan to open a “Taiwanese” office, using the island nation’s name instead of Taipei. Beijing views this as an attempt to recognise Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory.
On Wednesday, Landsbergis told reporters "there were no plans" to change the name, adding that he had discussed with the president the need to rally EU support.
Read more: ‘What have you done?’ Why the EU is slow to shield Lithuania from Chinese pressure
He also said it was not for Lithuania to decided on the Taiwanese name in the Mandarin language.
"There's no talking about changing the official name. The name in the Mandarin language is not Lithuania's decision, we have in no way agreed on that, it’s purely the Taiwanese's decision. We can perhaps speak with who calls what unofficially," Landsbergis said.
"I could not say," the minister said, asked whether there were any conversation with the Taiwanese.
"I can provide an example. In Brussels, there's an English-language sign at the Taipei representation in Brussels that it's Taiwan's representation. In other words, our newly-acquired friends choose different ways to communicate about their office unofficially, and they do that different ways," Landsbergis said.
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