MFA: Slovak-Vietnamese Relations Frozen until Hanoi Explains Abduction

Bratislava, October 19 (TASR) - Slovak-Vietnamese bilateral relations will be frozen until Slovakia receives a credible explanation from Hanoi as to how its kidnapped citizen ended up in Vietnam, Foreign and European Affairs Ministry spokesman Boris Gandel told TASR on Friday in reaction to a call by the Opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party to expel the Vietnamese ambassador. Gandel said that the ministry hasn't yet received an answer from Vietnam following the meeting of the two countries' foreign affairs ministers in New York. "Slovakia is a serious country and will take stringent diplomatic action against the Vietnamese at the moment when very serious suspicions that the Vietnamese party is currently facing are fully and officially confirmed," said Gandel. SaS earlier in the day called on Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak (a Smer-SD 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 Government 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 MP Martin Klus (SaS). ko/df