Simonyte on restoring diplomatic ties: the ball has always been in China's court

VILNIUS - China, not Lithuania, should initiate the restoration of diplomatic relations, ex-Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte says.

"The ball has always been in the People's Republic of China's court, and the ball is still there," she told reporters at the Seimas on Tuesday.

"It seems to me that there is nothing that Lithuania can do on its side. Because there is not much it can do to force or somehow demand or some other way to change the situation when the change depends on the other," she said.

Simonyte also pointed out that it was China that downgraded diplomatic relations. However, if China changed their position, Lithuania would have no problem in reconsidering this issue.

"If the Chinese side changes its mind and reverses that decision, I don't think there would be any big problem for Lithuania to simply reconsider the issue. Because there has never been such an initiative on the Lithuanian side to somehow downgrade the diplomatic representation and to close the embassy and to make some other decisions," Simonyte said.

As BNS reported earlier, Lithuania's relations with China soured in 2021 after Vilnius began forging closer ties with Taipei and allowed the island to open its representative office in the Lithuanian capital with "Taiwanese" in its name.

China views the move as an attempt by Taiwan to act as an independent state. Elsewhere, such offices operate under the name Taipei.

China has called for the change of the name to normalize bilateral relations.

Paluckas said earlier this week that that Lithuania "falls out of the EU context", being the only EU member states without diplomatic relations with China.

Speaking on Monday, Marius Cesnulevicius, the president's advisor on national security issues said that restoring diplomatic relations with China would be an aspiration, adding, however, that Lithuania would not abandon its values and principles to do so.