"Speaking of the existing situation with China, I believe the losses are huge, and that was completely unnecessary. It should have been well-discussed and coordinated with the Seimas, the government and the president, and it should have been done only upon reaching agreement on this support or non-support, recognition or non-recognition of Taiwan," Adamkus said in his interview with the public broadcaster LRT, published on Friday.
In his words, "that recognition should have, first, been done by the world, the major countries that have influence and their decision should provide results, not a small Lithuania".
"With all due respect for that small Lithuania, I bow my head before it, but that's not up to us to set examples on how the world should behave, and our foreign policy cannot include such things, and I do hope it won’t happen again," the ex-president said.
Lithuanian-Chinese relations went south after Vilnius allowed opening a Taiwanese representative office earlier this year under the island's name. Experts say the name sounds in Chinese as a representative office of Taiwan.
Beijing sees it as Taiwan's attempt to act as an independent country.