New Delhi: Lithuania, a European country with a reported population of just around 2.8 million, will host the heads of state and government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for a summit in capital Vilnius on 11-12 July.
The small nation has, however, recently been in the news for a diplomatic showdown with China which began in 2021, when Vilnius gave Taiwan permission to open a “Taiwanese” representative office in the nation, according to Politico.
China, which considers Taiwan a part of its territory, prefers the use of ‘Taipei’ over ‘Taiwan’ and was offended. In retaliation, Beijing recalled its ambassador to Lithuania — a first in many years — and asked Vilnius to recall its own envoy.
In an exclusive interaction with ThePrint Saturday, Lithuanian ambassador to India Diana Mickevičienė spoke about the row.
“Lithuania has faced numerous cases of economic coercion and economic blackmail from China even before the opening of the Taiwanese office,” she stated in a written communication. “On a number of occasions, Lithuanian exports have been blocked, or disqualified from entry into China’s market using veterinary or other pretexts.”
Among China’s retaliatory actions, freight to Lithuania under the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was stopped and new export licenses were denied to Lithuanian firms, Politico reported.
Mickevičienė also said businesses from other countries were pressured by China to withdraw investments from Lithuania, in return for access to Chinese markets.
“The case of China’s economic coercion against Lithuania is ongoing at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Apart from economic coercion, we have faced major political and diplomatic pressure, as well as disinformation campaigns,” she added.
The ambassador further emphasised that Lithuania hadn’t violated the ‘One-China’ policy.
Chinese spokesperson Zhao Lijian had, on 22 November, 2021, said at a press conference that “Lithuania, in disregard of China’s strong protest and repeated representations, allowed the Taiwan authorities to set up a ‘Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania’”.
He added that the act openly created the false impression of “one China, one Taiwan” in the world, and was an “egregious precedent”, and that “out of the need to safeguard national sovereignty and basic norms governing international relations, (China) has no choice but to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Lithuania”.
According to the EU website, the European Union “recognises the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole legal government of China”, and “supports the status quo and peaceful resolution of differences across the Taiwan Strait”.
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Indo-Pacific strategy
Formerly a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Lithuania became a member of the European Union (EU) in May 2004 and a member of the NATO — a political and military alliance founded in 1949 and consisting of 31 nations — in March 2004.
Last Wednesday, the nation published its ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy’ document which highlighted that “the development of economic relations with Taiwan is one of Lithuania’s strategic priorities”. It further stated the nation’s intentions in the Indo-Pacific region.
On Taiwan as a strategic priority, Mickevičienė stated to ThePrint: “While subject to a lot of pressure from China not to develop economic relations with Taiwan, Lithuania took it as a matter of principle to defend its sovereign right to seek economic partnership with Taiwan because it is fully compatible with our One-China policy, and also in our interest.”
She added that Taiwan served as a model for Lithuania and the nation was keen to strengthen its mutually beneficial relationship with the “very technologically advanced economy of Taiwan”.
According to the ambassador, many EU countries are interested in deepening cooperation with Taiwan, given the challenges arising from overdependence on China’s economy and its coercive behaviour.
She said the Indo-Pacific strategy envisages multiple tracks, including bilateral, multilateral and through the EU. “While we may be small, our technologies and components made in Lithuania reach all the world through global supply chains, and we all have the same interest and stakes to keep them safe, predictable and resilient,” Mickevičienė added.
The Lithuanian strategy paper highlighted an interest in “sharing expertise relating to defence and societal resistance”. On this, the ambassador stated to ThePrint: “Lithuania has successfully reformed not only its economy (which lay in shatters after our liberation from the centrally-planned USSR economy), but was also able to set up the whole ecosystem of democratic civil society and NGOs. These functions smoothly and collaborate with the government for the benefit of the country, assuring respect for democracy, media freedom and human rights.”
“Because of massive cyber activities from Russia over the last decade, the government and the private sector developed technological resilience and excellence in cybersecurity, making Lithuania No. 6 in the Global Cybersecurity Index. All this experience is still fresh and can be shared with many countries around the Indo-Pacific which have chosen the path of democracy,” she added.
Ties with India
Lithuania’s Indo-Pacific strategy document describes India’s role in preserving political and economic stability in the region. It also highlights Lithuania’s aim for mutually beneficial cooperation with India.
“India, as the world’s largest democracy, is a like-minded partner across all three pillars of our Indo-Pacific Strategy — political, security, economic and people-to-people cooperation. Lithuania, as a country of technology and innovation, is especially keen to develop a high-tech partnership with India, deepening our cooperation on new and resilient supply chains,” Mickevičienė stated to ThePrint.
She pointed out that, with India opening a new embassy in Lithuania earlier this year, the Indo-Lithuanian relationship was well placed to expand not just trade in goods and services but also partnerships across research and innovation and other sectors, like fintech and biotechnology.
Mickevičienė also mentioned “NATO’s pivot to the Indo-Pacific”.
As Vilnius hosts the NATO Summit, there have been questions about whether NATO would open a liaison office in Tokyo, as part of its reported pivot to the Indo-Pacific region. According to Nikkei Asia, NATO’s pivot to the Indo-Pacific could become a battle for the attention of the US.
“NATO’s pivot to the Indo-Pacific has been conditioned by a number of factors, including, initially, common global threats like terrorism. But of late, aggressive and expansive behaviour of some authoritarian regimes which are trying to rewrite the rules of international engagement have become a major challenge. Not only NATO, but also Indo-Pacific-4 countries have felt that security in the Transatlantic space and in the Indo-Pacific are very much related,” Mickevičienė explained.
The IP4 countries are Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand, who were earlier termed as the Asian-Pacific Partners or AP4 of the NATO.
“Our common security is not about splitting our capabilities, but rather about joining them,” Mickevičienė said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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