The U.S. and Lithuania have agreed to cooperate on ways to counter what they called China’s "economic coercion,” in a move that is likely draw a strong rebuke from Beijing.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on Wednesday that the Baltic nation had Washington’s support during a call that was held amid a diplomatic dispute over Taiwan opening a representative office in Vilnius under its own name.

The two officials pointed out that the U.S. and European Union, "as democratic market economies, share a number of core values and principles that we need to defend internationally.”