“We urge to continue boldly on this path and maintain close relations with Taiwan, which has been a reliable partner of our countries for decades,” the letter published on Monday states.
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The document addresses President Gitanas Nausėda, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius, Speaker of the Seimas Juoza Olekas, Foreign and National Defense Ministers Kęstutis Budrys and Robertas Kaunas.
The letter was signed by Republicans Mario Diaz-Balart, Andy Barr, and Democrats Ami Bera, Greg Stanton.
It states that China continues to pressure countries that maintain any relations with Taiwan, but urges “to consider how important it is to maintain relations with those who cherish democratic values.”
“Moreover, the People’s Republic of China continues to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, which contradicts European interests,” the document notes.
As BNS wrote, the ruling party has recently spoken more actively about normalizing diplomatic representation in relations with China, but so far this has not yielded practical results.
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M. Sinkevičius’s Government program promises to seek to normalize “diplomatic relations with China to the level of diplomatic representation that exists in other EU member states.”
Just last week, after a meeting with K. Budrys, Parliament Speaker J. Olekas said he saw progress in normalizing relations between Vilnius and Beijing.
Bilateral relations between the countries deteriorated in 2021 when Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a Taiwanese representative office in the country.
“We positively evaluated Lithuania’s 2022 decision to withdraw from the ‘17+1’ format (…). We appreciate that Lithuania has always been a strong leader among EU countries, resisting autocratic influences and in 2021 inviting Taiwan to open a representative office called the ‘Taiwanese Representative Office,’” the letter states.
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