Gintautas Paluckas is the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party’s candidate for the job of prime minister, and he says that his government would seek to restore full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China without making any excessive concessions as part of this process.
“Normal relations is certainly an aspiration,” Paluckas told BNS in an interview on Friday. “The EU is trying to maintain diplomatic relations even though the relations are not particularly rosy. There will be arguments about economics, about tariffs and about protectionist measures.”
“We cannot ignore this context if we are to be leaders,” he added.
Lithuania’s ties with China soured in 2021 when the Republic of China, or Taiwan, opened and office in Vilnius. Beijing downgraded its economic relations with Lithuania and imposed a series of trade restrictions.
Paluckas was asked whether his government would seek to restore ambassadorial presence in Beijing and Vilnius and responded: “Absolutely yes.” He added, however, that this normalisation of relations will be pursued “without humbling ourselves, falling on our knees or begging for anything.”
“Ours is a sovereign country,” the Social Democratic leader declared. “We have no dependency on China, and nobody is trying to create one, but diplomatic relations are valuable,” Paluckas said. “We really need them.”
The candidate for PM said that Lithuania made a “grave diplomatic mistake” when it allowed Taiwan to open the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania. He did not, however, answer a question on whether he would ask Taipei to change the name of the office if China were to insist.
“Let’s not speculate here,” Gintautas Paluckas proposed. We don’t know what the Chinese will ask, and we don’t know the real situation.”
The office in Vilnius uses the word “Taiwanese” in Lithuanian and English and “Taiwan” in Chinese.
Source: BNS
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