Olekas urges diplomats to handle Taiwan office name dispute

Lithuania should let diplomats manage discussions over the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius, Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas said, according to LRT. He said the country wants to strengthen economic and cultural ties with Taiwan while restoring diplomatic relations with China to the level maintained by other European countries.

“Let our specialists and diplomats do this work so that we get the best result,” Olekas told reporters in parliament. He said achieving the goals would take time and require a calmer atmosphere for discussion.

Delfi reported on Monday that representatives of the Foreign Ministry had given the office’s head, Constance H. Wang, an informal document on September 24 urging Taiwan to change the office’s name by October 1. In return, Taiwan was reportedly offered an agreement on investment prospects and talks on avoiding double taxation.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said the two governments had agreed on the office’s name after careful negotiations and that there were no plans to change it, RTI News reported on Tuesday.

President Gitanas Nausėda confirmed he knew about Foreign Ministry discussions with Taiwanese representatives concerning a possible name change, but said he did not understand why the information had not been made public. His chief adviser, Deividas Matulionis, said the proposal had been discussed with the United States. Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said the ministry and the office had discussed various aspects of bilateral relations, but did not confirm whether a name change had been requested.

Democrats “For Lithuania” leader Virginijus Sinkevičius said the focus should be on normalising relations with China while maintaining a working relationship with Taiwan, rather than on changing the office’s name. He said expectations linked to the name had been oversold and that cooperation with Taiwan should be based on realistic expectations.

The office opened in Lithuania in late 2021, worsening relations between Vilnius and Beijing. China imposed diplomatic and economic sanctions and lowered its diplomatic representation in Lithuania from ambassador to chargé d’affaires. Beijing considers Taiwan a Chinese province and opposes it establishing representative offices in countries that maintain official relations with China.

A draft of the current government programme sets out a goal of normalising Lithuania’s diplomatic relations with China to the level maintained in other European Union member states. The prime minister has said he hopes the foreign minister will achieve that goal before Lithuania’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.