VILNIUS - President Gitanas Nauseda said on Wednesday that it is realistic to achieve progress in normalising relations with China before Lithuania takes over the European Union Council presidency at the start of next year.
"Efforts are being made (...) to normalize relations or return them to decent tracks (...). In my eyes, this would be simple diplomatic representation, initially perhaps at the level of deputies, and later at the ambassadorial level," the head of state told reporters on Wednesday.
"I think the prime minister has outlined a fairly realistic time horizon for when we can see, if not the final results of improvement, then at least intermediate results showing that our relations are gradually recovering," he said.
The president's comments follow Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius' statement that he expects Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys to make progress in diplomatic relations with China before the European Union presidency.
Nauseda emphasised that he expects Budrys to actively work on this "important page of our foreign policy."
Lithuania will chair the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2027.
The ruling coalition has recently spoken more actively about normalising ties with Beijing to a level of diplomatic representation held by other European Union states. Speaker of Parliament Juozas Olekas said in August that he saw progress in the process.
Relations between Lithuania and China soured in 2021 after Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a Taiwanese Representative Office in the country.
Please enter your username and password.
2026 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy Privacy Policy
