Former Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is visiting Lithuania.
On Monday, Tsai is to deliver a speech at Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science, join former Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė for a discussion and hold a question-and-answer session.
The visit “aims to engage in comprehensive dialogue with many Lithuanian friends, with a view to further advancing the substantive bilateral partnership between Taiwan and Lithuania across a wide range of sectors,” the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius told BNS.
Tsai served as Taiwan’s president from 2016 to 2024. During her presidency, China stepped up its military, economic and diplomatic pressure on the island.
In 2021, as Lithuania began building closer ties with Taiwan, the island’s representative office was opened in Vilnius. It was named “Taiwanese” in Lithuanian and English, but the Chinese version uses the name “Taiwan”.
Beijing sees this as an attempt by Taiwan to act as an independent state. Elsewhere, such offices operate under the name Taipei.
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