TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) confirmed on Saturday (March 2) that it has received an application from Lithuania to set up a trade office in Taiwan.
The news comes days after Lithuanian Minister of Economy and Innovation Ausrine Armonaite said that the Baltic country has plans to establish a presence in Taiwan and is ready to move forward with those plans.
In addition to stating that it welcomes a Lithuanian presence on Taiwan’s shores, MOFA confirmed on Saturday that it will provide all necessary assistance to establish the office, per a UDN report.
MOFA said Taiwan and Lithuania are at the forefront of defending the liberal democratic order and are strategic partners that share common values. During the COVID-19 pandemic, both countries supported each other, and this will continue during the post-pandemic recovery through trade, investment, education exchange, scientific research, cooperation in supply chain resilience, and other areas, the ministry added.
Last November, a Taiwanese Representative Office opened in Lithuania. The establishment of the office was significant, as it was the first to use “Taiwanese” rather than “Taipei” in a European country with which it does not have formal diplomatic relations.
The move irked Beijing, which has since imposed a series of sanctions on the Baltic country in retaliation and pressured multinational companies with business in China to cut ties with Lithuania. The subsequent "secondary sanctions" are considered an evolutionary step in Chinese economic coercion.
Rather than simply leveraging market denial to intimidate countries or companies that already are exposed to China, Beijing now exerts pressure on third parties to cut trade with black-listed entities, encouraging compliance with Chinese policy throughout industrial supply chains. One case that illustrates this is Brolis Group, a family-owned Lithuanian semiconductor company that moved a factory to Belgium to keep its European clients from getting blacklisted by China for using their laser sensor chips.
