(Bloomberg) -- Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said the government’s decision to allow Taiwan to open a representative office using the island’s name was a mistake, wading into a controversy that’s upended the Baltic nation’s relationship with China.
The criticism by the head of state in a radio interview comes after tensions between China and Lithuania triggered friction between Beijing and the European Union. Taiwan opened the office in the capital, Vilnius, in November under the name of Taiwan, a move viewed by the Chinese government as a violation of its one-China principle.
Nauseda, who oversees foreign policy and represents Lithuania at EU summits, said both Lithuania and Taiwan are free to open representative offices that hold no diplomatic status and regretted that “the name of the office has become the key factor that now affects relations with China.”
“I would think that, not the opening of the Taiwanese office, but the name of it was the mistake, something with which I wasn’t consulted,” Nauseda said in the interview with Ziniu Radijas on Tuesday.
China responded to the opening by downgrading diplomatic ties with Lithuania, recalling its ambassador and allegedly halting clearance for Lithuanian exports, which prompted the EU to raise the dispute with the World Trade Organization. China has denied it’s blocking Lithuania’s exports.
Lithuania pulled out its diplomats from its embassy in Beijing in December after the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanded the return of the envoys’ diplomatic identification cards.
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