Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. I welcome this initiative and it is great to have our MEPs here. As a former member of the European Committee of the Regions, I recognise how difficult it can sometimes be to achieve that connectivity between operations at a European level and at a national level. I acknowledge how difficult it must have been for Mr. Markey to take over when he did when everything was virtual.

My question is about Lithuania. Our guests will be aware that in August of this year there was a breakdown in relations between Lithuania and China over what would appear to us to have been the slightest of things, which was a change in the name of what was then the Taipei representative office in Vilnius to the Taiwan representative office. This was considered by China to be a slight. The response from China has been grossly disproportionate. It essentially ejected the Lithuanian ambassador and recalled its own ambassador from Vilnius to Beijing. It has now begun a sustained campaign against Lithuania online and in other ways. What kind of solidarity can Lithuania expect from its European colleagues? What do our guests think we can do to ensure China does not bully a small country, a country not very different from us in size, because we could be at the other end of this kind of bullying and aggression in the future?