Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda talks to media prior the start of an EU Summit in the Europa building on June 18, 2026 in Brussels, Belgium. Photo: VCG

In a move seen as an effort to mend ties with Beijing, Lithuania's president said he expects to see the first results of the country's diplomatic outreach to China within the next six months. On the same day, another Lithuanian official said the country would allow China to establish a lower-level diplomatic representation, according to media reports.

Chinese experts argued that any genuine effort by Lithuania to improve ties with China would ultimately be judged by its actions rather than its rhetoric. In particular, they said, Vilnius would need to demonstrate respect for the one-China principle, correct its mistakes on Taiwan-related issues with concrete actions and remove the negative impact to create the necessary conditions for the normalization of bilateral relations. Otherwise, Vilnius would risk appearing to be trying to "have it both ways" — pursuing closer ties with Beijing while retaining policies that China views as harmful to its core interests, a position that Beijing is unlikely to accept.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told Bloomberg TV in an interview in Brussels on Thursday that he expects to see the first results of the country's diplomatic outreach to China within the next six months, as the Baltic nation moves to mend ties with China following a spat over island of Taiwan.

"We'd like to normalize the political relations because those relations have been broken for a few years," Nauseda said. "We are in the process, and I hope that we will see the first results in the next six months."

Nauseda said it wasn't "normal not to have any representative offices or diplomatic offices of both countries in Beijing and Vilnius."

On the same day, Remigijus Motuzas, chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, told Zinius Radijas radio that Lithuania will allow China to establish a lower-level diplomatic representation in the Baltic country, dropping its earlier opposition.

The ball for improving relations is now in China's court, Motuzas said.

The Lithuanian government, in disregard of the Chinese side's strong objection and repeated dissuasion, approved the establishment of the so-called "Taiwanese Representative Office" in Lithuania by Taiwan authorities in August 2021. Under the one-China principle, any exchanges with China's Taiwan should be civil and non-official. By allowing the establishment of a "representative office" under the name of "Taiwanese," Vilnius has apparently reneged on the political commitments it made in the communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Lithuania.

Since then, China has adopted a slew of legitimate, reasonable and lawful countermeasures including a diplomatic downgrade between China and Lithuania.

No Chinese diplomats have remained in Lithuania since May last year, according to Lithuania media reports.

With both Europe and the US seeking stronger engagement with China, Lithuania has come to realize that continued confrontation with Beijing would lead nowhere, Cui Hongjian, a professor at the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times.

However, Cui cautioned that if Lithuania is serious about repairing ties with China, it must adhere to the one-China principle, refrain from sending ambiguous signals on the Taiwan question, and take concrete steps to amend its mistakes on previous Taiwan-related moves.

"On the issue of the one-China principle, Lithuania cannot play with fire or attempt to have it both ways," Cui said. "Only by returning to the track of the one-China principle can it create conditions for the normalization of bilateral ties," he said.

In early June, a Lithuanian transport industry executive, speaking at a logistics forum in Azerbaijan, said that Lithuania is seeking to boost cargo shipments to China and Central Asia via the Middle Corridor, as cited by local media outlet Report News Agency.

Lithuania intends to use the Middle Corridor to expand cargo transport to Central Asia and China, Julius Skačkauskas, manager of the Transport Innovation Association (TIA) operating in Lithuania, told journalists at the 2nd Caspian International Transport, Transit and Logistics Forum in Baku, capital city of Azerbaijan, according to Report News Agency.

Skačkauskas served as vice minister of Transport and Communications of Lithuania from 2021 to 2024, according to his profile on Linkedin.

Analysts said that Skačkauskas' remarks mainly reflect the urgent demands of the country's struggling logistics sector. It is also possible that the Lithuanian government is using industry representatives as an informal channel to gauge China's response and send tentative signals about improving trade ties.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202606/1362751.shtml

超链接：

In February this year, Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said that she would be prepared to consider renaming an office set up by the Taiwan regional authority in her country, and she reiterated that the opening of the so-called "Taiwanese Representative Office" in Lithuania has "brought no benefits" from the region and has damaged relations with China, Lithuanian media outlet LRT English reported.

A majority of Lithuanians support renaming so-called "Taiwanese Representative Office" in Vilnius in an effort to improve relations with China, according to a poll, commissioned by Lithuanian media LRT in March.

In February, responding to a question regarding Lithuania's Prime Minister's previous remarks that Lithuania made a strategic mistake by allowing a so-called "Taiwanese representative office" to open in the capital under the name "Taiwanese," Lin Jian, Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated:" China has stated on multiple occasions its position on China-Lithuania relations. China's door to communication with Lithuania remains open. China hopes Lithuania will translate the willingness to improve ties with China into action, redress the mistakes as early as possible, return to the right course of upholding the one-China principle and build conditions for normalizing relations with China."