The Slovak (斯洛伐克) government announced on July 16,2021 that it would donate 10,000 doses of vaccine to Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA, 外交部) expressed its sincere gratitude to the Slovak government for its sincere friendship and generosity. Slovakia’s friendship shows that international democratic partners should work together to fight the epidemic.
Slovakia has included Taiwan on the Green Safety List since October 2020. It is the first member of the European Union (歐盟) to exempt Taiwan citizens from quarantine, highlighting Slovakia’s recognition of Taiwan’s epidemic prevention results. In May of this year, Taiwan’s epidemic alert was raised, and Slovakia volunteered to donate vaccines to Taiwan’s representative office in Slovakia. This is Slovakia’s way of thanking Taiwan because during the height of the epidemic in Slovakia last year, Taiwan’s MOFA, Kaohsiung City Government and the private sector generously donated a total of 700,000 face masks to Slovakia.
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The Slovak government has shown firm friendliness to Taiwan. Photo/provided by the Taipei Representative Office in Slovakia
Karol Galek (葛力克), Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economy of Slovakia (斯洛伐克經濟部次長), said that a year ago, Taiwan donated face masks to Slovakia in its time of need to help Slovakia fight the epidemic, and now Slovakia also wants to do its part to support Taiwan. Slovakia attaches great importance to Taiwan's huge investment in Slovakia and will continue to deepen bilateral relations. At the same time, it emphasizes that the donation of vaccines to Taiwan is the result of the cooperation of the Slovak Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior.
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Taiwan continues to strengthen its partnership with Slovakia. Photo/Provided by the “Liberty Times”
Recently, Japan, the United States, Lithuania, Slovakia and other international diplomatic partners have donated vaccines to Taiwan to alleviate the temporary shortage. The Slovak government used ProtectDefenders.eu (歐盟機制) to ensure the safe delivery of the vaccines to Taiwan. In the future, the MOFA will cooperate with relevant government agencies and private enterprises to continue to strengthen cooperative partnership with Slovakia in economy, trade, science and technology, culture and education, and at the same time to promote more exchanges between the people of both sides.