TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Slovakia will mark the 20th anniversary of its office in Taiwan by sending over a 30-member delegation for trade talks in June, the Central European country’s envoy in Taipei said Friday (April 28).
In an interview with CNA, Bruno Hromy said the group of officials from several Slovak government departments would attend the third Taiwanese-Slovak Commission on Economic Cooperation.
Slovakia sees Taiwan as a reliable partner in Asia, with the talks likely to focus on intensifying research collaboration and on learning more about semiconductors, Hromy said. Biotechnology and healthcare, electric vehicles (EVs), smart cities, and academic programs are also domains of interest for the delegation, with an emphasis on quality rather than on quantity, according to the envoy.
While direct flights between Taiwan and the Czech Republic are scheduled to start in July, there is no need for such a link with the Slovak capital Bratislava, as it is just a 40-minute car drive away from Vienna’s airport. Both China Airlines and EVA Air operate flights to the Austrian capital, which is convenient, Hromy said.
The representative also reminded reporters of the close cooperation between the two countries at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Taiwan donated 700,000 masks to Slovakia in 2020, and the Central European country gave 160,000 vaccine doses to Taiwan the following year, per CNA.