Lithuanian analysts say that the Lithuanian government is unlikely to ask Taiwan’s representative office in the country to change its name.
Most of Taiwan’s representative offices abroad go by euphemistic names that avoid any direct mention of Taiwan. This is to avoid angering China, which sees itself as the only legitimate representative of Taiwan around the world. However, Taiwan’s office in Lithuania has broken with this convention, and it opened in November as “The Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania”.
Lithuania’s decision to allow the office to open under this name caused a major deterioration in its ties with China even before the office opened. China withdrew its ambassador to the country and ordered Lithuania’s ambassador to return home. China has also retaliated through economic means.
On Tuesday, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said that allowing the office to open with a name explicitly referring to Taiwan had been a mistake.
But experts say that Nausėda’s remark may have been motivated at least in part by tensions within Lithuania’s political world rather than foreign policy concerns.
China expert Raigirdas Boruta of the Lithuanian think tank Eastern Europe Studies Centre says that Nausėda has been in regular conflict with the cabinet since it was formed at the end of 2020.
Lithuanian security affairs expert Marius Laurinavičius also says that Nausėda’s comments may have been a ploy to raise his approval ratings at a time when ties with China are a sensitive issue. Laurinavičius also says that forcing the office to change its name would not result in any long-term gain from China, and would only serve to damage ties with important allies such as the US.
Both experts conclude that President Nausėda’s remark won’t result in the office having to change its name.