Lithuania could serve as a role model for Switzerland: brave little state provokes Moscow and China

The example of Lithuania, which is hosting this week’s NATO summit, shows that a small European state can act very differently in the face of threats from the East. The southernmost of the three Baltic states has only 2.9 million inhabitants. But the Lithuanians are not lacking in fearlessness. Three examples show that it pays off.

In 2021, Lithuania allowed Taiwan to de facto open an embassy in Vilnius. Lithuania does not fully recognize Taiwan’s independence. Yet Beijing, which considers Taiwan a Chinese province, speaks of “excessive provocations in Lithuania”. China has kicked out the Lithuanian ambassador and is blocking exports to the Baltic states.

The Lithuanian government, for its part, seems unimpressed. Their coalition agreement states that they will work for freedom efforts in Taiwan. The Swiss Federal Council acts very differently. In April, he explicitly defended his reluctance to do business with Taiwan, citing Lithuania, which is economically chastising Beijing for its advance.

What the Federal Council Overlooks: Taiwan is one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers. Machines will no longer function without these chips. Taiwan wants to invest $200 million and a lot of know-how in Lithuania to boost chip production in the Baltic state. Vilnius’ bet on Taiwan could work.

While Switzerland obtained almost half of its gas from Russia at the start of the war, Lithuania – the very first country in Europe – turned off Russian gas taps in April 2022. A month later, the government announced that it would no longer purchase any other energy from the Moscow wartime regime.

This was made possible by forward-thinking Lithuanian energy planning. Already in 2014, the country opened its first liquefied gas terminal in order to break out of Russian pipelines as quickly as possible.

Speaking of renunciation, the statues of Stalin and Lenin, which stood all over the country before Lithuania left the Soviet Union in March 1990, were bought up in the early 2000s by a Lithuanian businessman and imprisoned in an artificial concentration camp in a forest. You can hardly give Moscow a clearer edge.

Free high-speed internet in major cities and the just-announced EUR 100 million investment in the cyber-startup district “Tech Zity” outside Vilnius are two examples of Lithuania’s uncompromising cyber direction. Last but not least, the British «Financial Times» describes Vilnius as one of the three most attractive European cities for foreign investors.

Lithuania plans to introduce an electronic system in the coming years to make voting easier. Lithuanians are tired of their troubled past. The rule here is: full steam ahead.