Foreign relations exist between Australia and Lithuania. Australia was among the first countries to re-recognise Lithuania's independence on 27 August 1991. Both countries formally established diplomatic relations on 6 November 1991. Australia is represented in Lithuania through its embassy in Warsaw, Poland (since 2013) and an honorary consulate in Vilnius (since 1997). Lithuania has had an embassy in Canberra since 2021, and also has honorary consulates in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Darwin.
History
Early diplomatic representation of Lithuania as part of the Russian Empire (within the Governorates of Vilna and Grodno) in Australia dates back to 1894, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire sent its first permanent consular representatives to Australia, based in Melbourne, and Lithuanians were counted in official statistics as part of the Russian community.
Following the Lithuanian Declaration of Independence in 1918, Australia recognised Lithuania on its admission to the League of Nations on 22 September 1921. However, unlike the other Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania did not appoint any consular representatives to Australia prior to the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940.
Relations during the Soviet occupation
With the Soviet Occupation of the Baltic States in June 1940, the Australian Government of Robert Menzies, like the British Government, did not recognise this action but the Minister for External Affairs, Sir Frederick Stewart, later confirmed in June 1941 that informal discussions had occurred that implied a "readiness on the part of the United Kingdom Government to settle on a practical basis various questions arising out of the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States." In 1948, the Soviet Embassy in Canberra made the announcement that "all persons from the Baltic States now resident in Australia would be registered as Soviet citizens", which met the response from the Australian Government of Ben Chifley that Australia did not recognise the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States and any citizens of those states resident in Australia would not be compelled to undertake any action in this regard.
By March 1949, in a Senate debate on the United Nations General Assembly's Third Session, the Minister for Health and Social Services, Senator Nick McKenna, noted the status quo of the situation: In March 1970 the Minister for External Affairs in the Gorton Government, William McMahon, noted in Parliament: "The legal position is that Australia has never withdrawn recognition from the Governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania which were forced into exile by the U.S.S.R.'s invasion and occupation of those States in 1940. Australia has not explicitly extended recognition to any particular Government which may regard itself as a successor to one of those Governments which Australia recognised in 1940."
Australia was the only Western country to break ranks and briefly recognise the Soviet annexation of Lithuania (and the other Baltic states) as de jure for 17 months between July 1974 to December 1975 by the Whitlam Labor government, while most other countries continued to recognise the independent Lithuanian diplomatic missions. In explaining the change of position, the Minister for Repatriation and Compensation and prominent critic of Soviet foreign policy, Senator John Wheeldon, noted to the Senate in September 1974:
Following the election of the new conservative Coalition government of Malcolm Fraser in November 1975, the new government withdrew de jure recognition of the incorporation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union. On 17 December of that year the Australian government instructed the Australian ambassador in Moscow that he and his staff were not to make any official visits to the Lithuanian SSR. On 27 August 1991, Prime Minister Bob Hawke, announced Australia's decision to re-establish full diplomatic relations with Lithuania. The Australian Ambassador to Denmark, John Burgess, received non-resident accreditation as Australia's first Ambassador to Lithuania from 6 November 1991.