Lithuania will not rebuild the kind of relations it used to have with China, says Parliament Speaker Saulius Skvernelis, including because of Beijing’s support for Russia.
“We will not rebuild the former relations, but it is possible to have the same relations as all the other EU countries,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“China’s position is very clear and it’s unchanging. And in this situation, at this time, with Russia’s large-scale invasion and the war in Ukraine, China being Russia’s ally, really makes the situation problematic, which is why you don’t see any efforts in the public sphere to restore those relations. As I said, there will be no such thing,” he said.
Relations between Vilnius and Beijing soured when Taiwan opened a representative office in Lithuania in 2021. Some politicians hoped that this would lead to technological cooperation in chip production.
Beijing, which regards Taiwan as part of China, saw it as a violation of the so-called One-China policy. While in other countries the island nation’s representations usually go under the name “Taipei”, in Lithuania it is called “Taiwanese”.
Beijing has urged to change the name in order to normalise relations.
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