Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Tuesday that it was "a mistake" to allow China's Taiwan region to open a representative office in Vilnius using its own name.

"The name of the office has become the key factor that now strongly affects our relations with China," Nauseda told a local radio.

China has expressed strong protest over Lithuania's approval of the establishment of the so-called "Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania" and downgraded the diplomatic relations with Lithuania to the level of charge d'affaires in November.

(Cover: Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda attends a face-to-face European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, October 22, 2021. /Reuters)