00:00So Lithuania's Prime Minister has said the decision to include Taiwanese in the name of Taiwan's representative office was a
00:07mistake.
00:08I'm wondering, following the Prime Minister's comments, have there been any further discussions about changing the office's name?
00:15Well, our president has assembled main decision makers working in the area of foreign policy and national security.
00:24And the conclusion of that discussion was that, first of all, this is not a decision that Lithuania can make
00:32unilaterally, because, well, Taiwan is involved.
00:35Secondly, that we should not make any steps that would betray or humiliate our friends, because Lithuania and Taiwan has
00:45really wonderful friendship.
00:46And as you know, for me, that was always about security and defense dimension, because both Lithuania and Taiwan have
00:56been experiencing both Russia and China as perpetrators from cyberspace to disinformational campaigns and many other hostile activities.
01:07Therefore, I feel that we have a very good relationship going on in this area.
01:13Just to make sure, so you said that the discussions, the end result of those discussions was that the name
01:19wasn't going to be changed or that they weren't going to pursue a name change. Is that correct?
01:24Well, the end of the discussions, I believe, is not there yet.
01:29These are the discussions that are continuing, and we will see how that goes.
01:34However, I think that the main decision makers made their position known clearly, and I am happy to see that
01:42for the president of our republic, it is also important to retain dignity and in certain cases also stable and
01:55predictable behavior in foreign policy and international security related issues is very important.
02:03But the president and the president and the prime minister did make their statements clear that they felt...
02:08Yeah, I think so. And I think that also it shows that as politicians, we haven't done our homework enough
02:14to explain to our society as well that appeasing China is a gift to Russia.
02:21And we probably all understand in Lithuania, after two horrible bloody occupations by Russia, that gifts to Russia or appeasement
02:30of Russia never ends well for us.
02:32You said changing the title of Taiwan's representative office would be a win for Russia. Why is that?
02:39Because if we betray our friends, our democratic friends, in favor of autocratic states that are openly and actively enabling
02:52and supporting aggressor Russia,
02:55which is destroying Ukraine and instead of supporting democracies, we would support a peace and make happy autocracies, that somehow
03:07doesn't seem really consistent with the political goals that we have had for decades.
03:14Secondly, as I said, the tension between the United States and China and the importance of Taiwan, both to Europe
03:24and to the United States, I think is undisputable.
03:27And therefore, if we make certain steps that would just weaken Taiwan's position, and we make certain steps that would
03:39make China and Russia happy, that doesn't make sense at all.
03:43And having in mind that Russia's propaganda has been so aggressive, and this really hostile behavior of Russia towards Lithuania,
03:54efforts to mock us, to humiliate us, and etc.
03:59I could just imagine the field day for Kremlin propaganda if we would make a decision like that.
04:07But again, what we need to remember, this is not a unilateral decision. This is representative office of Taiwan.
04:14So therefore, the Taiwanese position, their arguments, is just, well, extremely important, critical.
04:24Lithuania's president has recently suggested he hopes to balance ties with China and Taiwan, seeking to restore normal diplomatic relations
04:33with China, while also expanding cooperation with Taiwan.
04:37Is Lithuania changing its policy towards Taiwan and China, in your view?
04:42Our goal is to have a single and united front within the European Union.
04:50And since all other European Union countries, and by the way, also United States, have diplomatic representation on the level
04:59of ambassadors with China,
05:00to have this sort of usual diplomatic channel does make sense.
05:06But it is very different than, you know, expanding cooperation, becoming friendlier, and etc.
05:13So when our president said that he also seeks to expand cooperation with Taiwan, and just normalize diplomatic relationship with
05:22China to the level of other countries in the European Union,
05:25I think that also shows very clearly where we stand with China and where we stand with Taiwan.
05:31Lithuania's president said that Lithuania should expand cooperation economically with Taiwan.
05:38How exactly can Lithuania and Taiwan expand economic cooperation?
05:43Well, I think that's more on the Taiwanese side. We are ready for cooperation and have been ready all these
05:50years and really welcoming this.
05:52But also, this is a democratic state, and I've been told multiple times by Taiwanese institutions that, well, businesses make
06:01up their own minds.
06:02So we are welcoming them, really, with open heart. So let's see what could happen.
06:08And you previously served as Lithuania's defense minister. What kind of defense cooperation currently exists between Lithuania and Taiwan?
06:17And how do you think that it can expand?
06:18We have started our cooperation and expanding it in the areas such as civil defense, working together on development of
06:28total defense concept,
06:29because we have certain similarities facing the threats close to our borders, engagement of society, cooperation of public and private
06:38sector.
06:39Also, cyber security, as I said, this combination of cyber informational incidents.
06:46These are on the rise for the last at least six years in Lithuania and Taiwan also has a vast
06:52experience with that.
06:54Cyber attacks, which are also we are both experiencing daily in massive amounts.
07:02And what about the drone supply chain? Lithuania and Taiwan have talked about setting up a joint drone supply chain.
07:08Why is it important to work together on this?
07:11Unmanned vehicles, unmanned weapons, including drones, they are constituting bigger and bigger part of the battlefield.
07:20And therefore combining our technologies, learning from each other, incorporating Ukrainian experience and their ingenious engineering possibilities.
07:32I think that we can all learn. I am afraid that now is the time where all democratic world has
07:39to arm up to the teeth and do it as fast as possible.
07:42Regretfully, China and Russia are doing that much faster and therefore we really need to speed up.
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