{"id":2132,"date":"2026-06-24T20:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T20:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/2132\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T20:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T20:52:15","slug":"coalition-reset-in-vilnius-%e2%9f%a9-incoming-lithuanian-cabinet-may-seek-outreach-to-china-and-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/2132\/","title":{"rendered":"COALITION RESET IN VILNIUS \u27e9 Incoming Lithuanian Cabinet May Seek Outreach to China and Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is a popular topic among some voters, especially in eastern Lithuania, particularly since President Donald Trump established contacts with Lukashenko\u2019s regime. There are limits to what Mindaugas Sinkevi\u010dius and his team can achieve here. \u201cResumption of the transit of Belarusian fertilizers via our country would be the ultimate gain for the cabinet,\u201d according to a retired senior Lithuanian government official.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut in April, the EU much more closely aligned its 20th anti-Russian <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/finance.ec.europa.eu\/news\/eu-adopts-20th-package-sanctions-against-russia-2026-04-23_en\">sanctions package<\/a> with sanctions against Minsk. Unless the US makes some unexpected move in Belarus, not much will change.\u201d Another potential foreign policy sphere where change is possible is relations with the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC).<\/p>\n<p>The Taiwan Office Dilemma<\/p>\n<p>Lithuania is the only European country where a \u201cTaiwan Representative Office\u201d operates. China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and is extremely sensitive to terminology. Only twelve states, including the Holy See, maintain official diplomatic relations with Taiwan at the embassy level. Dozens of de facto embassies of the \u201cRepublic of China\u201d \u2014 Taiwan\u2019s historic constitutional name \u2014 operate across five continents, but the regime in Beijing insists that they should be labeled \u201cTaipei Representative Office\u201d to avoid recognizing the sovereignty of the island nation.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure__image\" onclick=\"triggerEvent('articleImageClick', { id: 15696415, focus: 'single-image', focusIndex: '15696415' })\" onkeydown=\"if (event.key === 'Enter') {&#10;        triggerEvent('articleImageClick', { id: 15696415, focus: 'single-image', focusIndex: '15696415' })&#10;        }\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" data-focus-from=\"single-image\" data-focus-index=\"15696415\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782334335_80_15696415t1he7b9.jpg\"  onload=\"this.parentElement.classList.remove('figure__image-loading')\" alt=\"A plaque at the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius.\"\/>A plaque at the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius. Photo: Stringer<\/p>\n<p>Since the Lithuanian government of conservative and liberal parties, now in opposition, opened the Taiwan office in 2021 in response to China\u2019s growing interference in Lithuanian politics and security-related matters, relations with the PRC have steadily deteriorated. Today, no Chinese diplomats are posted to Vilnius, and Lithuania has none in Beijing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a popular topic among some voters, especially in eastern Lithuania, particularly since President Donald Trump established&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[89],"class_list":["post-2132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-lithuania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}