The Centre for Asian Studies is inviting researchers, students and the general public to an international academic conference dedicated to explore historical and contemporary relations between the countries in the Baltic and East Asia regions. It will be held in a mixed format (participation is possible both online and in-person; all presentations will be streamed online) on March 4-5, 2022 at Room 313/103, Putvinskio str. 23, Kaunas or online via MS Teams platform.
Conference program (PDF format)
The conference is inspired by the fact that there are multiple anniversaries marking relationship between the Baltic and East Asian countries. 100-year anniversaries are related to the fact that Japan expressed de jure recognition of Estonia and Latvia in 1921, and of Lithuania in 1922. The Republic of China did the same in 1923. This marked official beginning of various affairs between these two geographically distant regions. Unfortunately, many things had to be put on halt for almost half a century due to the Soviet occupations and Cold War tensions. The interaction between the regions was resumed in the early 1990s, and this marks another set of anniversaries – 30 years since the re-establishment of diplomatic affairs that happened in 1991.
Such anniversaries encourage historians and scholars of other fields to reflect on the past and provide insights that could help to build stronger inter-regional cooperation in the future. The conference seeks to contribute to this goal by encouraging further research and sharing of knowledge.
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