Trinh Xuan Thanh, the abducted Vietnamese citizens, stands trial in his homeland, facing a life in prison. (source: AP/TASR)
Until Slovakia receives a credible explanation from Hanoi of how the kidnapped Vietnamese citizen got to Vietnam, bilateral relationships between the countries will be frozen, said spokesman for the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry, Boris Gandel on October 19, in reaction to a call by the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party to expel the Vietnamese ambassador.
The ministry has not yet received an answer from Vietnam following the meeting of the two countries’ foreign affairs ministers in New York, Gandel said, as cited by the TASR newswire.
“Slovakia is a serious country and will take stringent diplomatic action against the Vietnamese when the very serious suspicions currently held against the Vietnamese party are fully and officially confirmed,” the spokesman said.
Opposition slams Vietnamese abduction, Slovak reaction
Earlier in the day, the SaS called on Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák (a Smer nominee) to downgrade Vietnamese representation in Slovakia by expelling the country’s ambassador.
“The Vietnamese government flagrantly misused Slovakia to kidnap Vietnamese national Trinh Xuan Thanh, using our territory and even the Slovak governmental plane to transport him. Although the Vietnamese Government is unable to explain how Trinh Xuan Thanh got from Germany to Vietnam, it’s been systematically misleading both the Slovak government and the Slovak public via its ambassador, as it refuses to accept responsibility for the abduction,” said SaS MP Martin Klus, as quoted by TASR.
