(CNSNews.com) – And then there were fourteen.
Estonia and Latvia on Thursday both announced they were withdrawing from a 10-year-old club that pairs China with central and eastern European nations, a move which the State Department linked to “a growing convergence [between the U.S. and its allies] about the need to approach relations with Beijing with more realism.”
Both Baltic nations in carefully- and similarly-worded statements cited human rights and “the rules-based international order,” alluding to concerns that China – both in its stance on Taiwan and in its deepening partnership with Russia – is running counter to those principles.
Initially known informally as the “17+1” framework, the Central and Eastern Europe and China (China-CEEC) grouping became the “16+1” last year when Lithuania was first to leave, amid serious tensions with Beijing over Taiwan. It now becomes the “14+1.”
“Latvia will continue to strive for constructive and pragmatic relations with China both bilaterally, as well as through E.U.-China cooperation based on mutual benefit, respect for international law, human rights and the international rules-based order,” said the foreign ministry in Riga.
The Estonian foreign ministry said the country “will continue to work towards constructive and pragmatic relations with China, which includes advancing E.U.-China relations in line with the rules-based international order and values such as human rights.”
Reacting to the decisions, Lithuanian Gabrielius Landsbergis said that the “format was already redundant and divisive long before Lithuania quit. Latvia and Estonia are now closing the door too.”
“14+1 should be replaced with EU27+1,” he added, underlining Lithuania’s stance that relations between China and Europe should be conducted at the level of the 27-member state European Union.
Of the 14 countries remaining in China-CEEC, nine are E.U. members (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). The remaining five are Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
“In the defense of a rules-based world order, every country has a role to play!” tweeted Frank Juris, a research fellow and China specialist at Estonia’s International Center for Defense and Security.
“Estonia [is] not only showing the way in regard of Russia but also being the trailblazer in relations with China by leaving the 16+1 format of Chinese influence and co-option.”
State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said the U.S. respected and supported the decisions taken by Estonia and Latvia, describing them as “important and valued NATO allies and key U.S. partners.”
Regarding the broader China-Europe relationship, Patel said the administration “believes that our likeminded allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific hold similar visions for the future of the international order and can realize our goals most effectively when we work together.”
“Over the past year, we’ve seen countries around the world express deep concern about the PRC’s strategic alignment with Russia as well as Beijing’s support for Moscow’s war against Ukraine,” he said.
“As Secretary Blinken has said before, there is a growing convergence about the need to approach relations with Beijing with more realism.”
While the row over its support for Taiwan soured ties between Lithuania and Beijing, China’s implicit backing for President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a serious concern for all three Baltic states, which are on the frontlines figuratively and literally of the confrontation between Russia and the West.
In relation to China and Russia in particular, U.S. officials repeatedly state the importance of nations upholding the “rules-based international order” that has governed inter-state relations since World War II.
Moscow and Beijing have led a strong pushback, accusing the U.S. of having “invented” the rules, and of using the concept to promote its own interests and those of its allies, to the detriment of Russia and China and developing nations.
“They say everybody must support a rules-based world order,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a speech to Arab foreign ministers in Cairo last month. “And the rules are written depending on what specific situation the West wants to resolve in its own favour.”
In a lengthy document declaring a “no limits” friendship early this year, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping said they “intend to resist attempts to substitute universally recognized formats and mechanisms that are consistent with international law for rules elaborated in private by certain nations or blocs of nations.”