Lithuanian president warns renaming Taiwan office could risk its closure

VILNIUS - Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Tuesday the issue of the Taiwanese Representative Office's name was settled when it opened, and warned that reopening the debate could lead to its total closure.

"First of all, we must understand that the issue of the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office was resolved several years ago. One can call it a mistake or something else, but let us admit it was a certain achievement for Taiwan in its relations with other countries. It was a stake they drove into the ground," Nauseda told reporters.

Nauseda said reconsidering the name could create a choice "between the name staying as it is, or no representative office at all." He added that Lithuania aims to maintain normal, business-like relations with both Taipei and China.

"But (...) Communist China's reaction to this fact was what it was; it has not changed significantly, and we are certainly not ready to accept ultimate demands under any conditions or with an outstretched hand," Nauseda said.

The president said restoring relations with Beijing could be achieved by returning diplomatic representation to a level below that of an ambassador.

Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene has repeatedly said she sees no reason why the office could not be renamed the Taipei Representative Office. In an interview published Monday by the Lrytas news portal, she claimed that during a meeting several weeks ago, Nauseda agreed with all the positions she expressed.

"At the meeting, he agreed with the positions that were expressed earlier," Ruginiene said.

Nauseda stressed that Ruginiene should not comment on his statements from a private meeting.

"The Prime Minister should not comment on my statements, especially from a closed meeting where we actually discussed, among other things, this mentioned issue," he said. "I repeat once again, it could be named Taipei, it could be named something else, but this is a matter involving both sides: both the state where this office is established and the office itself, whose original name was different."

He also noted that Lithuania has not fully exploited economic cooperation potential with Taiwan.

"One of the tasks for Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys is to try to unlock this potential, primarily by creating certain programmes that clearly reflect the commitments of the Taiwanese side," Nauseda said. "Unfortunately, today we must state that we could have achieved much more than we have."

Vilnius and Beijing have been at odds for several years over how to restore diplomatic representation following the dispute over the office’s name. Since mid-May last year, no accredited Chinese diplomats or staff have been in Lithuania, and bilateral trade fell after the Taiwanese office opened in 2021.

Ruginiene’s government programme includes a goal to "restore diplomatic relations with China to the same diplomatic level as in other European Union member states."

A Baltijos Tyrimai poll commissioned by public broadcaster LRT and published last week showed that six out of ten residents support changing the office’s name.