Former Lithuanian minister of foreign of affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis said it would be an “enormous mistake” if his country’s new government succumbed to Beijing’s pressure and changed the name of Taiwan’s representative office there.
Landsbergis, who arrived in Taipei on Sunday for a five-day visit, was asked in an interview before he departed from Lithuania about China’s reported pressure on his country’s government to change the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius.
He said that despite Beijing’s repeated demands, the Lithuanian government has long pushed back on the issue, which is Lithuania’s “sovereign decision” and “a matter of principle.”
Photo: CNA
It would be a huge misstep if the new Lithuanian government yielded to Beijing’s demands to change the name, he said.
“It would be an enormous mistake, and it would be difficult to imagine successfully fostering the relationship between Taipei and Lithuania further,” he said.
Landsbergis said he fully recognizes that “it is more than just a name. It is part of [Taiwan’s] identity.”
The controversy arose in 2021 when Taiwan opened a representative office in Vilnius under the name the “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.” Beijing opposed the inclusion of the word “Taiwanese” in the name and began pressuring Lithuania to have it changed.
Taiwan’s representative offices in countries with which it does not have diplomatic ties are typically named the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Office” or “Taipei Representative Office,” in keeping with the host countries’ preference to avoid any references that would imply Taiwan is a separate country from China.
China responded to the office’s opening by recalling its ambassador to Vilnius and expelling Lithuania’s ambassador to Beijing. It also suspended direct freight rail services to the Baltic nation and severely restricted Lithuanian products’ access to the Chinese market.
Landsbergis was the chair of the center-right Homeland Union from 2015 to last year. He stepped down from that position in October last year after his party lost the parliamentary election runoff to the Social Democratic Party.
The country’s new prime minister, Gintautas Paluckas of the Social Democratic Party, has said he wants to restore full diplomatic relations with China, but his administration has not commented on the possible renaming of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania.
On the issue of Paluckas’ stance on China, Landsbergis said Beijing was responsible for the prickly relations between the two countries.
“They decided to sanction us,” he said. “I mean they decided, and they can decide differently … I wouldn’t object.”
“The question is whether we are doing certain things, trying to please China,” he added.
Landsbergis said he would be “really disappointed” if his country’s government bends to Beijing.
In November last year, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said Taipei was not opposed to the new Lithuanian government restoring relations with China.
Beijing-Taipei-Vilnius relations are not a “zero-sum game,” he said.
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