Ramūnas Karbauskis, leader of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union (LVŽS), the biggest opposition party, has asked the prime minister to authorise him to negotiate with China to normalise Vilnius-Beijing relations.
Ties between Lithuania and China soured after the opening of a Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius, which Beijing insists violates the “one China” policy.
Read more: China calls on Lithuania to change Taiwanese office name ‘in all languages’ – interview
LVŽS politicians have criticised the move, arguing Lithuania should change the name of the office to refer to Taipei rather than Taiwan.
“If none of you are able or willing to, I am asking you to give me an official mandate to seek an agreement with China and to correct your mistakes,” Karbauskis said in an open letter to Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on Thursday.
“I agree to accept the responsibility to resolve the conflict between the Republic of Lithuania and the People's Republic of China through negotiations, with the only condition to be fulfilled by the Lithuanian authorities being the change of the name of the Taiwanese representative office,” Karbauskis said.
Karbauskis told BNS he had also informed the president's office about his proposal.
According to him, diplomatic assistance and support for Taiwan can be expressed in various “peaceful” ways, “but not in ways that can deprive the country's businesses and thus the economy of billions [of euros] overnight”.
“Your reluctance to correct mistakes when they are clearly identified and solutions are openly proposed is incomprehensible,” he said.
“This is an inexcusable mistake on your part [...], which shows that either you are playing and taking part in some dirty foreign policy games, or your government is in deep trouble due to an obvious bankruptcy of competences.”
The politician admitted that he doubted that the government would give him the mandate, but said the refusal would show that the authorities lied when they said Beijing had been really angered by Lithuania's withdrawal from China's 17+1 cooperation forum with central and eastern European countries, rather than by the name of the Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius.
“If there is no answer or if the answer is negative, I will once again say loudly to all the people of Lithuania: ‘This government has lied, continues to lie and will continue to lie endlessly, because they are playing some dirty games’,” Karbauskis said.
“I will publicly address the Chinese government as a shadow prime minister, saying that we have a government that lied and continues to lie to our society, and I will ask the Chinese government to maximally avoid decisions that would harm the Lithuanian people and businesses, and to wait for the next government, which, of course, will immediately discard all that nonsense,” he told BNS.
Relations between Lithuania and China turned sour after Taiwan last autumn opened its representative office in Vilnius under its own name. Beijing, which considers Taiwan to be part of China, downgraded diplomatic ties with Vilnius. There were reports that China warned EU companies to drop Lithuanian contractors.
China wants Lithuania to change the name of the Taiwanese office.
Qu Baihua, China's acting chargé d'affaires in Lithuania, has told BNS in a recent interview that the office could use the name of Taipei, as is done elsewhere in the world.
In the diplomat's words, the use of the island's name creates the impression of Taiwan being separate from China.
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