Baranovas criticizes Budrys over Taiwan office name proposal

Lithuanian lawmaker Ruslanas Baranovas has criticized Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys over a reported proposal to change the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius, saying it could create more mistakes, LRT reported Monday.

“It seems from public information that Minister Budrys has chosen to ‘correct’ the mistakes made when the Taiwanese Representative Office opened by making his own,” Baranovas wrote on Facebook. “You cannot fix some mistakes by making others — there will simply be more mistakes.”

Baranovas, a member of the ruling Social Democrats and chair of a parliamentary group on relations with China and Taiwan, said changing the office’s name in return for “a few Chinese diplomats in Vilnius” would be “a very bad deal” from a foreign or security policy perspective. He added that, if the aim were to secure a Chinese ambassador in Vilnius at any cost, Lithuania might as well give China the port of Klaipėda, joking that it would then receive plenty of cargo.

His comments followed a report by the news portal Delfi that the Foreign Ministry had asked the office in September to change its name as part of efforts to restore diplomatic representation with China. Budrys has called media reports about the request inaccurate and declined to comment on them.

The Taiwanese Representative Office said on November 6 that cooperation with Lithuania was based on mutual respect, shared interests, transparency and partnership. It told the 15min news portal earlier last week that it did not intend to change its name.

Chinese diplomats are expected to visit Lithuania on November 11 and 12 for meetings with Foreign Ministry officials and a group of members of parliament seeking to normalize diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Lithuania’s diplomatic relations with China deteriorated in 2021 after the Taiwanese Representative Office opened in Vilnius. Similar offices in other countries operate under the name Taipei. China responded by lowering its diplomatic representation in Lithuania from ambassador to chargé d’affaires. Lithuania later stopped issuing new accreditations to Chinese diplomats, and no Chinese diplomats have been in the country since May last year.