VILNIUS (TASS): The sh-adow Cabinet of Ministers of Lithuania, for the first time in the political history of the country, formed in 2021 by the largest opposition party in the Seim (parliament), the Union of Pe-asants and Greens of Lit-huania (SKZL), will seek to rename the representation of Taiwan into the representation of Taipei. Prime Minister Ramunas Karbau-skis, who is the chairman of the SKZL, told reporters about this on Friday in the shadow cabinet.
“To normalize relations with the PRC and correct the mistake, the Taiwan mission should be renamed into the Taipei mission or mission,” he said.
According to Karbauskis, at its meeting, the shadow government emphasized that the opening of the representative office in itself does not cause discussion, it was an important step for Lithuania, but the question arises why the name was chosen for it, which caused China’s discontent. “We did not choose the path chosen by the countries that care about their economic interests,” the politician emphasized. In other countries, only Taipei offices operate.
Karbauskis assured that the opposition will make every effort to rename the mission. He said that the shadow cabinet had raised this issue with the government of Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte. “If there is no answer, the question will be raised at the parliamentary level,” the politician said.
The opening of a representative office of Taiwan on November 18, 2021 in Lithuania provoked a sharp deterioration in relations between Vilnius and Beij-ing. China, opposing the of-fice with this name (Beijing agrees that it, as in other countries, was a representative office of Taipei), reca-lled its ambassador from V-ilnius and offered Lithuania to do the same. On Nov-ember 21, China decided to lower diplomatic relations with Lithuania to the level of a chargé d’affaires, and on November 26 sent a note on the change in the status of the Chinese diplomatic mission in Vilnius from the embassy to the PRC mission.
Beijing also used economic levers: it suspended freight rail transportation to Lithuania, reduced the credit limit for Lithuanian companies operating in the Chinese market, and stopped issuing permits for the export of food products. In early December, the PRC struck Lithuania as a state from the database of its customs system. As a result, Lithuanian exporters could not legally register the goods delivered to the PRC. A week later, Lithu-ania reappeared in the Ch-inese customs systems. Be-ijing also warned international companies about the undesirability of supplying products to China, which are produced with the participation of Lithuanian partners.
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