The European Union (EU) ought to cancel an upcoming meeting with China, intended to tame bilateral tensions, unless the latter states a clear stand on the Russia-Ukraine war, a senior Lithuanian official said on March 16.
“It is the time to show China that we mean business—that they cannot expect to occupy this ambiguous role, on one hand supporting Russia, on one hand using trading opportunities with the West—European Union, and expect no consequences,” Lithuanian vice foreign minister Mantas Adomenas told Reuters.
Three weeks ago, the group of 27 nations in Europe, including Lithuania, said it plans to hold a top-level, likely virtual, meeting with China on April 1 to defuse growing tensions between the two sides. The Sino–European relations remained in a freeze over the past year because of Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Lithuania’s deepened ties to democratic Taiwan.
Yet Adomenas said it was “not the time for normalization” in an interview during a visit to Washington.
“In our assessment, it is very ill-timed. In view of recent developments, it should be called off, or at least postponed significantly until we see which side China is on,” he said.
The vice foreign minister said Lithuania, a former Soviet republic concerned about Moscow’s broader intentions, had “a lot of persuasions to do” to convince other EU members that the summit should not go ahead.
It came as U.S. President Joe Biden on March 16 called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the first time since Moscow waged a full-scale invasion on Ukraine on Feb. 24. President Biden said he will send an additional $800-million military aid to Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials confirmed the same day, day 22 of the invasion, that Russian forces had bombed civilian shelters in the besieged Ukrainian port city Mariupol, including a theater where hundreds of people were taking refuge. More than 2,500 people have been killed in the city so far.
Elderly residents cross a destroyed bridge while fleeing Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine on March 13, 2022. (Felipe Dana/AP Photo)
As most of the world is acting in unison to denounce Russian aggression, Beijing has been continuously distancing itself from the conflict between Russia and the West.
In the latest move, the Chinese regime stood by Moscow in a March 16 UN vote, opposing a decision by the highest legal body of the United Nations to order Russia to “immediately suspend” its military operations in Ukraine. Beijing has never called the Russian attack an invasion or condemned the aggression.
Beijing rebuked Lithuania after the Baltic nation announced last July that it would exchange representative offices with Taiwan. With Taiwan announcing it would open an office in Vilnyus, Beijing called on Lithuania to abide by the “one-China principle.”
But the Communist regime did not live up to its own words of national sovereignty, given the absence of a clear stand over the Russian invasion, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN earlier this month. Russia has allegedly asked China for military assistance amid its military operation in Ukraine, although officials on both sides have denied the allegations.
The EU filed a complaint on Jan. 27 in the World Trade Organization against communist China over discriminatory trade practices on behalf of Lithuania.
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