China: China on Friday signaled openness to restoring full ties with Lithuania after Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene acknowledged a 'mistake' in allowing Taiwan to open its office in Vilnius. China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported that Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian urged Lithuania to 'return to the right track of adhering to the one-China principle and accumulate conditions for the normalization of China-Lithuania relations.'

According to Anadolu Agency, Lin stated, 'China's door to communication with Lithuania remains open. We hope that Lithuania can translate its willingness to improve bilateral ties into real actions and correct its wrongdoings at an early date.' The statement from Beijing came after Ruginiene expressed regret, saying, 'I believe that Lithuania really jumped in front of the train and lost.' Her remarks, made to The Baltic News Service (BNS) earlier this week, referred to Lithuania's decision in 2021 to allow Taiwan to open a 'Taiwanese Representative Office' in Vilnius.

The decision sparked anger in Beijing, leading to a reduction in diplomatic ties between China and Lithuania. In response, in 2022, Lithuania opened its own representative office in Taipei. China views Taiwan as a 'breakaway province,' while Taiwan has maintained its independence since 1949, holding full diplomatic relations with at least 12 countries.

Ruginiene noted that although Taiwanese representative offices exist in other European countries, those countries coordinated the opening and used the name 'Taipei Representative Office.' As reported by The Baltic Times, she stated, 'And those countries somehow managed to keep their ties with China completely businesslike, but (...) it was probably a huge mistake on Lithuania's part to think that if we offered something ourselves and were the first to do something, the world would suddenly appreciate it. Well, we tried in this case, we have the Taiwanese Representative Office, but the world did not appreciate it, no one appreciated it.'