Foreign Ministry taking diplomatic steps regarding kidnapping case

The Foreign and European Affairs Ministry is taking specific and effective steps in the diplomatic field in connection with the recent case of the kidnapping of a Vietnamese citizen, the ministry's press department told TASR on Tuesday. "Serious diplomacy isn't done through newspaper headlines. Diplomacy typically uses certain tools that the ministry has been utilising since the very beginning, inter alia it's repeatedly summoned the Vietnamese Ambassador for interviews, and we've lowered our representation level in Hanoi from ambassador to chargé d'affaires," said the ministry, adding that the ministry has declared that it's ready to adopt more energetic measures if it turns out that the Vietnamese side misused Slovakia. This was in reaction to media statements by political parties and bloggers who accuse Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák (a Smer-SD nominee) of inaction.