Dubbed the ‘Dumpling Alliance’ by a Taiwanese NGO, ties between Taipei and countries in Central and Eastern Europe have been growing, according to a new report.
A 2023 study by the Slovakia-based Centre for East Asian Studies (CEIAS) said Lithuania, Slovakia, Czechia, and Poland have been responsible for almost 60 percent of all interactions with Taiwan in the European Union last year.
The think tank named engagements as governmental, parliamentary, and military activities, as well as mutual visits and cooperation in the economic, cyber, cultural, and human rights fields.
Lithuania and Slovakia had “more yearly engagements with Taiwan than major member states, such as France or Germany”, CEIAS said.
Following Lithuania’s disillusionment with China’s economic promises, the Taiwan-centred approach “combined normative motives with economic ones”.
And although Vilnius was named in the report as a key player, ties between Lithuania and Taiwan “are yet to prove that values-based foreign policy can, indeed, be pragmatic”.
According to the report, imports from Taiwan “clearly outperform Lithuanian exports to it”. Meanwhile, only the first steps have been taken to deepen trade between the two countries that would offset Lithuania’s economic losses from severing China ties.
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