The Prime Minister of Lithuania, open to reestablishing diplomatic relations with China

MADRID 22 Nov. () –

The newly appointed Prime Minister of Lithuania, Gintautas Paluckas, has been in favor of reestablishing diplomatic relations with China, after Taiwan opened a representative office in Vilnius three years ago, to which Beijing responded by cutting commercial ties.

“We consider diplomatic ties as a possibility to exchange points of view and information,” he said, thus being in favor of the return of representatives at the highest level to both capitals.

However, he has assured that this does not mean ending the current commercial relationship he maintains with Taiwan. “It’s not about being soft or sacrificing anything,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

That movement by Lithuania in 2021 motivated China to remove its ambassador from Vilnius and to take economic retaliation that led the European Union to raise the dispute before the World Trade Organization (WTO), which shows the difficult balance that Brussels maintains. with Beijing.

The Parliament of Lithuania approved the nomination of the social democrat Gintautas Paluckas as the new prime minister, despite the fact that it was the party leader, Vilija Blinkeviciute, who won the elections. However, he resigned from forming a government citing health reasons.