Taiwan has not received a request to change the name of its de facto embassy in Lithuania, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday, after a report that Lithuanian officials were discussing whether to ask Taiwan to modify the name.
Separately, a senior US administration official said that Washington had not pressured the Baltic state to change course, following a Financial Times report last week that said the US had suggested the name change.
Taiwan last year opened the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania, without using the word “Taipei” as it has in other countries.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Beijing, angered by the move, downgraded its diplomatic relationship with Vilnius and pressed multinationals to sever ties with Lithuania or face exclusion from its market.
Modifying the Chinese version of the representation name to refer to “Taiwanese people” rather than to Taiwan was last week proposed by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to President Gitanas Nauseda as a way to reduce tensions with China, sources said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there has been no request to change the name.
“Neither our country’s Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania nor the foreign ministry has ever received a request from the Lithuanian government to change the Chinese or English name,” it said.
The office’s name was set during bilateral consultations and there has been no change in Taiwan and Lithuania’s positions that they would continue to enhance relations, the ministry added.
“Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners who share the values of freedom and democracy,” it said.
“Our country will continue to work with international democratic allies to support Lithuania; even in difficult circumstances, Taiwan will continue to demonstrate the resilience and perseverance of a democratic country,” it added.
Since Vilnius’ allowed Taiwan to open the office, Lithuanian officials have complained of Chinese retaliation, and Washington has stepped up economic and diplomatic support for the Baltic country.
The senior US official said that the US government had not pressured Lithuania to reverse course after its decision last year to refer to Taiwan in the name of the office.
“It is their right to make these decisions as a sovereign nation. The suggestion that we would be pressuring them to somehow change the name is fundamentally at odds with our entire position,” the official said.
“I have not seen at any point, even under consideration let alone being deployed in any sort of official messaging, some sort of threat about a limit to what [support] we may be able to offer unless somebody changed course. That’s not even been on the table,” the official said.
“European solidarity” on the issue was crucial, the official added.
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