Lithuania sees China disinfo threat in Philippines as mirror of Russia problem

MANILA, Philippines — From thousands of miles away, Lithuania is offering to help the Philippines confront a rising tide of cyber threats and disinformation on the West Philippine Sea — warning that tactics used in favor of Beijing mirror the same information warfare Russia has waged in Europe.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Šakaliene, concluding the first-ever visit by a Lithuanian defense chief to the Philippines, warned Wednesday, July 2, that the hybrid threats both nations face from their larger neighbors are increasingly sophisticated and coordinated.

"It seems that Russia and China sometimes are piloting certain methods in one region and then applying them in another region," Šakaliene told reporters at a press conference.

The Baltic nation has long grappled with hybrid threats from Moscow and sees parallels in the Philippines’ experience countering the distortion of incidents of Beijing’s aggression toward Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, Šakaliene said.

“From what we hear, the Philippines (deals) with Chinese informational activity in the region, and pressure, for example, this gaslighting about the incidents in the West Philippine Sea,” Šakaliene said. “So you also see a lot of disinformation and propaganda.”

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The Philippines and China have repeatedly traded blame over incidents of aggression in the South China Sea. To counter China’s narratives, the Philippine Coast Guard and other agencies tasked with patrolling the sea have been publicizing images and videos of Chinese vessel’s hostilities at sea.

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Šakaliene praised the Philippines' transparency initiative and called it the "golden standard" for how smaller nations can respond to larger aggressors without escalation.

"Your transparency initiative, the more I learn about it, the more, as I said, impressed with it," she said.

"I think it's a wonderful solution... and also very useful globally, showing what geopolitical challenges certain countries are facing," the Lithuanian official added.

Cyber defense partnership

Lithuania has invited the Philippines to upgrade from observer status to full participant in its annual "Amber Mist" cybersecurity exercise this November. Last year, the Philippines only observed the exercise.

"This year, we invited the Philippines to send their team as participants in this exercise. We are hoping that we will have five countries from the region: the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Australia, and Taiwan," Šakaliene said.

"We are going to share quite practical information because certain cyber attacks that we are facing are quite similar," Šakaliene said. "In certain cases, (this is) a combination of cyber incidents and informational incidents."

Lithuania has also invited the Philippines to participate in the Vilnius Strategic Communications Conference in October 2025, which focuses on information integrity and security. 

Regional threats

Beyond cybersecurity, Šakaliene also pointed to possible cooperation in maritime security. Šakaliene noted that UNCLOS, the international convention covering the world's oceans and seas, falls short in addressing today’s challenges, particularly in protecting critical underwater infrastructure.

"What is happening in the Baltic Sea with critical underwater infrastructure and what is happening with critical underwater infrastructure in your region is quite similar," Šakaliene said.

Šakaliene warned that both nations must ready themselves for "more and more active military interventions" by Russia and China. The Lithuanian defense minister stressed that the deepening coordination between Moscow and Beijing across military, economic, political, and financial spheres demands a coordinated response.

During her four-day visit that began June 30, Šakaliene met with Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro and signed a bilateral defense cooperation agreement that could lead to more specific deals in the future, including cybersecurity and munitions production, among others.

"As they cooperate militarily, economically, politically, financially, then we also need to cooperate on learning how to deal with them," she said. — with reports by Martin Ramos