Mon, Aug 07, 2023 page1

• Baltic lawmakers tout diplomacy, dialogue

  ALLY: Matas Maldeikis separately said that Lithuania’s exports grew 45% in a year and a half after China sanctioned the nation over Taiwan’s representative office in Vilnius

  • By Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter
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  The “status quo” of the Taiwan Strait cannot be changed unilaterally, and “any eventual resolution must be found via diplomacy and dialogue,” a delegation comprising the heads of the Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian parliaments’ foreign affairs committees said yesterday

  Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament, Zygimantas Pavilionis, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian Seimas, and Rihards Kols, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Latvian Saeima, arrived in Taiwan yesterday on a six-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

  Pavilionis called them the “Three Baltic Musketeers” in a tweet on X, announcing the start of their visit to the “beacon of freedom, democracy, human rights & rules-based order.”

  

  Zygimantas Pavilionis, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian Seimas, second left, Rihards Kols, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Latvian Saeima, center, Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament, first right, and others pose for a photograph at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday.

  Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

  Kols described the trip as a “fact-finding mission/visit” that would focus on security and defense, business, cultural ties and economic partnerships.

  “The visit shows a shared policy in relations with Taiwan in accordance with EU policy,” the Estonian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee said in a news release on Saturday.

  The three “underline that the status quo in the Taiwan Strait cannot be changed unilaterally, and they oppose the use or threat of force. Any eventual resolution must be found via diplomacy and dialogue,” it said.

  

  Lithuanian lawmaker Matas Maldeikis delivers a speech in the Presidential Office in Taipei on Nov. 29, 2021.

  Photo: EPA-EFE / Taiwan Presidential Office

  In other developments, Lithuanian lawmaker Matas Maldeikis told the Voice of America that Taiwan would ultimately benefit from Lithuania’s success in resisting Chinese economic coercion and political bullying.

  “Lithuania was well aware that it would pay a huge price for supporting Taiwan, including commercial losses, but it will not compromise with the [Chinese] Communist Party,” Maldeikis was quoted as saying in a report published in Chinese on Saturday.

  “In the long run, the biggest winner from what is happening here [in Europe] is Taiwan,” he said.

  In 2021, Taiwan opened the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania in the capital, Vilnius, using the name “Taiwanese” with the permission of Lithuania, instead of “Taipei,” which most countries use for fear of provoking Beijing.

  China then imposed economic sanctions on Lithuania, downgraded diplomatic ties between them and withdrew its ambassador from Vilnius, while demanding the European country do the same.

  Beijing envisioned a quick win, believing that the Lithuanian government would cave in or make concessions, Maldeikis told the Voice of America.

  “The result was unexpected,” he added.

  NATO held a summit in Vilnius last month and Lithuania’s exports grew 45 percent in a year and a half after China imposed the sanctions, Maldeikis said.

  Lithuania showed other nations that by disobeying China a country can still win, he said.

  “We will not sell ourselves out for the Chinese market, nor will we deceive ourselves and others by saying that nothing happened to sell products to the Chinese market,” he said.

  Lithuanians standing up to Beijing “forces the EU to stop hiding behind diplomatic, but sometimes meaningless rhetoric when it comes to the situation in the Taiwan Strait,” Una Aleksandra Berzina-Cerenkova, director of Riga Stradins University’s China Studies Centre, said in the Voice of America piece.

  The “wolf-warrior diplomacy” practiced by China over the past few years has fueled resentment among Lithuanians, Maldeikis said.

  Under the leadership of the US, a new wave of support for Taiwan has emerged in the international community, he said.

  In Lithuania, taking a supportive stance toward Taiwan and a firm stance against China helps win votes for politicians, he said.

  However, relations between Taiwan and Lithuania sparked controversy last month when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) said that Taiwan provided funds and technology to produce 8-inch silicon wafers in Lithuania to cultivate ties.

  Representative to Lithuania Eric Huang (黃鈞耀) told the Voice of America that it was a mutually beneficial program with funding provided by both sides.
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