Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis hails Australian stance on ‘bully’ China

Australia has been hailed for standing up to China’s ‘bullying’ so that smaller nations are not forgotten.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on his official visit to Australia. Picture: Jason Edwards

A small European country has welcomed Australia’s help in standing up to China’s “bullying”.

Visiting Melbourne, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said he appreciated that Australia had sought to join talks involving a trade dispute between the EU and China.

The dispute centres on China’s trade and diplomatic sanctions against Lithuania after the Baltic nation recently opened a controversial Taiwan trade mission in its capital Vilnius.

“The biggest message to any power or any country in the world is that if you bully, you cannot expect that that country will be left alone,” Mr Landsbergis told the Herald Sun.

“We tend to band up, and we’re here to show support to Australia as well (over its relations with China).”

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis is on an official visit to Australia. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Landsbergis, who has relatives in Melbourne, said there was an “unbreakable bond” between the two nations, and his visit aimed to strengthen economic and political ties.

The grandson of modern Lithuanian independence leader Vytautas Landsbergis, the 40-year-old foreign minister was hosted at a dinner by Melbourne’s Lithuanian community on Tuesday.

“Our mission here today is really to reinforce this brotherhood (between Australia and Lithuania),” he told the gathering.

“That is political at this point, but I’m building it from the historic heritage that our two countries share, that you and your relatives in Lithuania share.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Landsbergis launched the Australian-Lithuanian Cyber Research Network, a joint initiative of RMIT University and Lithuania’s Mykolas Romeris University. The network is the first of its kind globally, and will provide a platform for Australia and Lithuania to cooperate on common cyber security issues that affect both the Asia Pacific and Europe.

Director of RMIT’s Centre for Cyber Security Research & Innovation, and co-convenor of the new network, Professor Matt Warren, said “the network provides a platform for the two countries to undertake jointly important cyber security research”.

“The first initiative of the network will be the Australian-Lithuanian Hybrid Threat Observatory. Hybrid threats are state and non-state actors that are challenging countries and institutions they see as a threat, opponent or competitor to their interests and goals with a focus on disputing industry and society,” he said.

Mr Landsbergis with a Melbourne Lithuanian community folk music group. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Landsbergis said that Lithuania, a NATO member, was preparing for a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine that would destabilise the region and the rules-based world order.

“Russia is nearing the point where they would be able to start a massive military operation, the likes that we haven’t seen since the Second World War,” he said.

“Russia has everything it needs for an attack, and the decision is buried somewhere in (President) Putin’s mind.”

Mr Landsbergis said there was a growing closeness between Russia and China.

“Both countries are disrupters of the rules based world order, be it geopolitical, be it economic – basically they want to offer a new set of rules that would be primarily based on the rule of power,” he said.

“They attract each other in that sense. But that should only give us more incentive to strengthen the ties between like-minded countries, and defend the order that provides us security, stability and prosperity.”

Mr Landsbergis was hosted at a dinner held at the Lithuanian community centre in North Melbourne. Picture: Jason Edwards

Lithuania, together with fellow EU nations Poland and Latvia, experienced a “migrant” crisis on its border late last year when Belarus facilitated dozens of flights a week from Middle Eastern countries, and dumped the arrivals on the EU border.

Mr Landsbergis said it was an “unprecedented and nasty attack”, but the situation had eased with the flights being stopped.

“With the assistance of international partnerships, we tend to always … buddy up when solving big problems, because we are a small country, and our biggest strength always is when we have friends,” he said.

Mr Landsbergis met with federal government ministers on Wednesday and will address the National Press Club on Thursday.