Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu will arrive in Lithuania on Thursday as part of his visit to the Baltic states.
He is scheduled to visit the Lithuanian parliament where he will meet with pro-Taiwan lawmakers. However, Lithuanian leaders and the foreign minister do not plan to meet with Joseph Wu.
“We will discuss economic cooperation and investment on both sides. We see opportunities that have not yet been exploited. We would very much like to propose to Taiwan that Lithuania be a gateway to the EU market,” Matas Maldeikis, head of the parliamentary group for relations with Taiwan, told BNS on Wednesday.
According to him, the security situation in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions would be discussed as well.
“We have to adapt and take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new reality,” the MP said.
On Thursday night, Taiwan’s top diplomat will participate in the Future of Democracy Forum organised by the Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science (VU TSPMI) and the Foreign Ministry.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis will also deliver the opening speech at the event, but the ministry says there are no plans for a bilateral meeting of the two ministers.
"We subscribe to the ‘one China’ policy, which implies that we have no official contacts [with Taiwan],” Landsbergis told reporters on Wednesday.
Representatives of Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, and Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen have also told BNS that they have no plans to meet with the Taiwanese minister.
Political analysts say Lithuania’s leaders and executive officials will not meet with Joseph Wu because they want to avoid irritating China by hinting at the recognition of Taiwan as a state.
Konstantinas Andrijauskas, a politics professor at VU TSPMI, told BNS that by not meeting with Taiwan’s foreign minister, Lithuanian leaders are trying to maintain “at least some room for manoeuvre” in terms of relations with China.
“Apparently, there is no desire to irritate [China] too much,” he said. “The government wants to strike some kind of balance because it understands that the situation is not normal, with virtually no Lithuanian embassy in one of the world’s most important countries, and with no ambassadors in both capitals.”
In his words, a meeting with Taiwan’s foreign minister would not help if Lithuania wanted to normalise official relations with China.
Vilnius’ decision to allow Taipei to open a Taiwanese representative office in the Lithuanian capital in 2021 angered China, which limited its relations with Vilnius and blocked Lithuanian exports and imports. Lithuania, however, says it respects Beijing’s “one China” principle.
Estonia followed in Lithuania's footsteps last week, as Tallinn announced it would allow Taiwan to open a non-diplomatic Taipei representative office in the country to boost economic and cultural ties with the island, but vows to maintain the “one China” policy in political relations.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
