Beyond Small State's Geopolitical Imagination: Value-based Foreign Policy of Lithuania towards Taiwan

This paper explores the value-based foreign policy of Lithuania towards Taiwan. Lithuania has come into the spotlight after the opening of the Taiwanese Representation office in Vilnius, resulting in a very intense relationship with People's Republic of China, leading to economic consequences. The decision was based on the so-called "value-based" foreign policy approach that The Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) declared in their election program. Consequently, it was transferred to the Government's program after the victory. However, the question remains open as to why Lithuania has decided to conduct a "value-based" policy towards Taiwan. Small states usually choose to focus their foreign policy on their region. Meanwhile, for a long time, Taiwan was beyond Lithuanian geopolitical imagination. Thus, this foreign policy choice is atypical for a small country like Lithuania, despite its strong stance towards its undemocratic neighbours, Russia and Belarus. Besides, the Lithuanian decision to open the Taiwanese representation led to PRC's economic sanctions, which were not considered before the Lithuanian MFA's decision. Therefore, the rationale behind this decision will be the centre of this paper. The first step of the more extensive research of the decision to open up the Taiwanese Representation office is to figure out how experts perceive Lithuanian "value-based" foreign policy. Thus, this paper will initially be focused on the expert discourse regarding the decision while analysing the responses of six experts who will participate in a focus group discussion. The selected experts fall under three categories: university-based, think tank-based, and independent experts. The outcome of this research is combined with the semi-structured interviews of the Lithuanian decision-makers and diplomats. Finally, the expected outcome of the research is to contribute to the small state studies, explaining why and how small states sometimes may take messianic democracy promotion goals and conduct foreign policy outside the traditional geographical scope of small states.