China should initiate the restoration of full diplomatic representation with Lithuania, says Kęstutis Budrys, the candidate for Lithuania’s foreign minister, currently serving as an adviser to President Gitanas Nausėda.
In his words, it was China that decided to recall its ambassador from Lithuania and demand the departure of Lithuania’s representative from Beijing in response to the opening of the Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius.
“It was not Lithuania that decided to downgrade the level of diplomatic representation and initiated the change of its form altogether, which is not even defined by our laws,” Budrys said in an interview with BNS on Tuesday.
“If there’s room and opportunity for us to have diplomatic relations with our national security ensured, then let’s do it. Nobody is against it, and I don’t see any differences of opinion on the political spectrum, but the ball is not in our court and it was not Lithuania’s initiative to do it,” he added.
His comment came after Prime Minister-designate Gintautas Paluckas said several days after the Seimas election in Lithuania that he would seek to restore full diplomatic relations with China but would not make excessive concessions.
Beijing downgraded its diplomatic representation in Lithuania in 2021, recalled its ambassador in Vilnius, and renamed the diplomatic mission as the Office of the Charge d’Affaires of China in Lithuania.
Vilnius says the unilateral name change is not in line with international law, adding that Beijing’s decision to call embassy staff members representatives of the Office of the Charge d’Affaires of China in Lithuania creates problems for their accreditation in Lithuania.
In his interview with the Elta news agency in November, the director of Lithuania’s State Security Department said that if China’s diplomatic representation in Vilnius were to expand, Beijing’s intelligence activities would automatically resume and intensify.
There are a variety of threats emanating from China, Budrys says.
“It is not that if you eliminate one, you can avoid them elsewhere. Of course, in any case, we’ll need to work in that area. Is there a price? Well, as with all risks, they have to be assessed, we have to look at what we do and don’t tolerate and at what cost. I am certainly in favour of not rushing into things,” the candidate for Lithuania’s foreign minister said.
Last week, Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry said a diplomatic note had been delivered to China regarding the declaration of three staff members of the Chinese mission in Vilnius persona non grata.
The ministry does not disclose the specific actions that led to this decision but said the staff members were not accredited.
China has warned that this decision could lead to certain retaliatory measures against Lithuania.
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