EU seeks ‘de-escalation’ of Lithuania-China feud but takes no further action
- Members ‘expressed clear solidarity with Lithuania’, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said
- Despite repeated calls by Lithuania’s foreign minister for further concrete actions by the EU, no new measures were announced
The European Union’s top diplomats hope to de-escalate Lithuania’s dispute with China as they also seek to secure a summit meeting with Beijing before the end of March.
Following a two-day session of the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers in the French port city of Brest, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that members stood in “solidarity” with Lithuania – even if no new support measures were forthcoming.
“Some things are going well, some less well,” he said of the EU-China relationship, adding that members “expressed clear solidarity with Lithuania and discussed how we could actively press on with de-escalation”.
Borrell added that an EU – China summit at the end of March would give him “the opportunity to travel to China to prepare”.
“It will also be an important summit to review where we are in our relations with China,” he said.
Lithuania has been embroiled in a months-long dispute with China over its decision to allow a diplomatic centre named the Taiwanese Representative Office; typically, such de facto embassies for the self-governed island are known as Taipei Representative Offices.
As a result, Lithuania was apparently targeted for a sweeping economic coercion campaign by China; the EU announced it would gather evidence for a case before the World Trade Organization.