News

On 4 March, Lithuanian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Egidijus Meilūnas met with Director General of the Office for European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China Li Ruiyu and discussed with him the Lithuanian-Chinese relations and the preparation for the 20th anniversary celebration of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations.

The Vice-Minister drew attention to the development of people-to-people relations of both countries. With the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, the Lithuania-China Forum was established in November 2009, and the first Confucius Institute in the Baltic States opened its doors in Vilnius in 2010.

This year Lithuanian poet Tomas Venclova became a Grand Prize winner at one of China’s largest international poetry festivals, he was selected from 60 candidates and nine nominees representing countries all around the world. The winner will receive the award during the festival in August, in the capital of Qinghai province.

Li Ruiyu emphasized the intensified Lithuania-China political dialogue and attracted the Vice-Minister’s attention to the successful visit of President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė to China in October 2010 on the occasion of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

Vice-Minister E.Meilūnas and Li Ruiyu also discussed the second ASEM Transport Ministers’ Meeting, which will be held in China in October.

ASEM is a process of dialogue that brings together all European Union’s members states and 20 Asia and Oceania countries. At the initiative of the ASEM countries, specific European and Asian co-operation projects are implemented in the political, economic and socio-cultural fields.

As the initiator of the transport topic within the ASEM dialogue, and aiming to share its experience, Lithuania has become one of the organizers and coordinators of ASEM.

China is one of Lithuania’s most important partners in Asia, as well as main trading partner on this continent. Diplomatic relations between Lithuania and China were established on 14 September 1991.