Partners in Need, Partners Indeed?

Summary

What are Taiwan’s ties with the Baltic States? This episode puts Estonia in the spotlight and familiarizes listeners with key developments in Estonia-Taiwan relations against the backdrop of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania’s decision to open a Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius, and growing tensions between the EU and China. The guest - Mart Tšernjuk from the University of Tartu - has been working on this topic for a number of years and published both in Estonian and English. One of his most recent publications is a chapter in an open-source book Partners in Need, Partners Indeed? Tracking Europe-Taiwan Relations Amidst Global Disruption (Central European Institute of Asian Studies, 2025).

Mart Tšernjuk works at the University of Tartu as a lecturer in Chinese language and culture and as the Coordinator of Taiwanese Affairs at the Asia Centre. He is also President of the Estonian Oriental Society.

The episode is hosted by Linas Didvalis, an Associate Professor at Centre for Asian Studies at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.

The Nordic Asia Podcast is a collaboration sharing expertise on Asia across the Nordic region, brought to you by the following academic partners: Asia Centre, University of Tartu (Estonia), Asian studies, University of Helsinki (Finland), Centre for Asian Studies, Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku (Finland), Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University (Sweden) and Centre for South Asian Democracy, University of Oslo (Norway).

We aim to produce timely, topical and well-edited discussions of new research and developments about Asia.

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Linas Didvalis

Linas Didvalis is Associate Professor at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. Linas holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Politics from the International Christian University.

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