Lithuania has no faith in China and does not believe that Beijing can play a positive role in a political resolution of the war in Ukraine. He underlines this in an interview with Adnkronos Zygimantas Pavilionis, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Lithuanian Parliament, who doubts Beijing’s real intentions despite the ‘reconciliation’ phone call between Volodymyr Zelensky and Xi Jinping.
“The biographer of St. John Paul II, George Weigel, maintains that between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea there are the largest number of martyrs who died for their faith compared to all other Christian nations on this planet. Most of these martyrs were killed by autocratic regimes, who wanted to conquer these ‘middle lands’. Putin is firmly in line with this tradition and it seems that China supports him in this. Why we, Lithuanians or Ukrainians, should trust the ‘peacemaker’ Xi , who shares Putin’s goals of eliminating American influence in Europe and dividing and governing the democratic nations of Europe?” asks Pavilionis, arriving tomorrow on a visit to Rome.
For the Lithuanian deputy, the time has come for European countries to “speak with one voice – European or transatlantic – with authoritarian regimes, separate from them, create global democratic alternatives for our economies (as Lithuania does) and join Nations like Ukraine ready to die for democracy and freedom”.
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament points out the importance of having Ukraine, Moldova, and the Balkan nations join the EU and NATO as they are trying to “defend their democracies from the aggressive Russian and Chinese autocracies, and not to abandon them because we should know very clearly that we democracies of EU and NATO countries will be next”.
If Europe does not act in this way, he points out, “China will draw the wrong conclusions and will continue to undermine the rules-based international order – continues Pavilionis – Our message is clear: do not be naive, do not play with autocratic states, Don’t think you can change them with your money or your markets. On the contrary, they will change you, so you better stop before it’s too late.”
Commenting on the words of the Chinese ambassador in France, who questioned the sovereignty of the former Soviet republics, the deputy believes that the diplomat “only expressed what the Communists in Beijing or the KGB in Moscow really think of us. The China is patiently waiting to figure out how this war unleashed by Putin will actually end. If Putin wins, China will do the same with Taiwan – he concluded – That’s why Xi is so interested in making Western countries as dependent on China as possible : to paralyze their will to defend democratic values and take control of their critical infrastructure”.
Source-www.adnkronos.com