Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis cautioned Friday that a Taiwan issue might harm EU-China relations.
Landsbergis said he wasn’t supporting a “decoupling” from China, but the bloc needed to prepare for the break with Moscow when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“Here we are,” he said.
“Somebody has to devise a possibility that a ddecouplingmight happen – not because we wished it, like with Russia, not because we willed it but because the situation, for example in the Taiwan Strait, has been changed by force,” he told reporters in Stockholm before his EU counterparts.
“The reaction would lead to some sort of decoupling,” Landsbergis said.
After its failed Russia strategy of energy imports from Moscow, the EU strives to realign its relations with a more assertive China.
Ursula von der Leyen and Olaf Scholz advocate “de-risking” China without decoupling.
However, French President Emmanuel Macron was criticized for pushing the EU to reduce its dependence on the U.S. and warning against being drawn into a Taiwan crisis caused by “American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction.”
