TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan signed a judicial treaty with Slovakia on Tuesday (Aug. 3), the sixth such agreement to be inked with a European country.
The ceremony took place in Taipei and was attended by Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) and Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the heads of Taiwan’s justice and foreign ministries, respectively, as well as Slovakian envoy to Taiwan Martin Podstavek. The event was witnessed remotely by the central European country's Justice Minister Michal Kotlárik.
The five other European countries that have an arrangement with Taiwan on judicial and criminal affairs are Germany, the U.K., Poland, Denmark, and Switzerland.
The cooperation, which took more than four years to be finalized, will see the two sides share practical experience on law enforcement, cooperate on extraditing criminals, and enhance mutual legal assistance. The deal is aimed at institutionalizing a way for the two countries to fight crime.
Taiwan and Slovakia set up representative offices on each other’s soil in 2003. Bilateral ties saw a boost last month when the European country pledged 10,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to thank Taiwan for its donation of 700,000 masks at the early stage of the pandemic.