Lithuania to press EU for less economic dependence on China

Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys says Lithuania will seek to convince the European Union to reduce its economic dependence on China when it holds the EU Council presidency next year, LRT reports.

Speaking at a meeting with the opposition Homeland Union faction in the Seimas on Friday, Budrys said the Foreign Ministry had been actively addressing economic security issues related to dependence on China, imports and exports by certain companies.

“We are closer to decoupling from China than to de-risking, which is the direction the European Union wants to pursue,” Budrys said.

He added that Lithuania’s interest during its presidency would be to move the EU towards its own position on trade and economic security policy.

According to Budrys, the challenge is compounded by Lithuania’s large trade imbalance with China. He said last year’s ratio of exports to imports was approximately one to eight, while in some other countries the imbalance was measured in dozens of times.

Lithuania will hold the EU Council presidency in the first half of 2027, taking over from Ireland and later handing it to Greece. It previously held the presidency in 2013.

Relations between Vilnius and Beijing deteriorated significantly after Taiwan’s representative office opened in Lithuania in late 2021. China considers Taiwan a province that does not have the right to establish representative offices in countries with which China maintains official diplomatic relations. Beijing subsequently imposed strict diplomatic and economic sanctions on Lithuania.

President Gitanas Nausėda has previously said that the prime minister’s expectation that Budrys make progress in relations with China before Lithuania’s EU Council presidency was realistic. Budrys has also said he remains optimistic about the issue.