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US-China relations
China

China likely on Nato agenda over ‘limitless’ Russia partnership, says Lithuanian foreign minister

  • Baltic country’s Asia-Pacific allies may again attend transatlantic security alliance’s annual meeting, slated this year for Vilnius
  • China ‘a significant part of conversation’ given possibility of weapons transfers to Russia, Gabrielius Landsbergis adds

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Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, speaks at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Tuesday. Image: CSIS
Robert Delaneyin Washington
Lithuania’s Asia-Pacific allies may attend this year’s Nato summit in Vilnius, where China is likely to be on the agenda because of Beijing’s “limitless” alignment with Russia, the Baltic country’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
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Gabrielius Landsbergis said China would likely be individually cited for a second consecutive year at the annual Nato meeting, “especially if our Asia-Pacific partners join in the conversation”.

China was identified as a “systemic challenge to Euro-Atlantic security” last year in Nato’s strategic concept – a key document that sets the alliance’s military and security strategy for the next 10 years. It was the first time that the country was identified by the alliance as a threat.

“I’m not sure whether they accepted the invitation, but maybe that’s in due time,” Landsbergis said of Lithuania’s Asia-Pacific allies in remarks at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan Washington think tank.

Landsbergis, right, answers questions from Daniel Fata, a former senior US defence official. Image: CSIS
Landsbergis, right, answers questions from Daniel Fata, a former senior US defence official. Image: CSIS
The foreign minister did not specify which countries had been invited to this year’s Nato summit. Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea attended last year’s meeting in Madrid.
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Lithuania has one of Europe’s most contentious relationships with China. The country became embroiled in a trade stand-off with Beijing after Vilnius agreed to allow the self-ruled island’s representative office in Lithuania to use the word “Taiwanese” in its name instead of other identifiers that Beijing finds less objectionable.

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