Robert Fico is leading an official visit to Vietnam from April 12 to 14, 2026 at the invitation of Prime Minister Le Minh Hung. The prime minister will also meet with President To Lam, the central figure in the 2017 kidnapping case of Vietnamese dissident Tran San.
Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kaliňák, Speaker of Parliament Juraj Blanár, Minister of Economy Denisa Saková, Minister of Finance Ladislav Kamenický, Minister of Agriculture Richard Takač and Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová will travel with Fice.
A large delegation of Slovak businessmen is also going to Vietnam, focused on strengthening cooperation in the automotive industry, agriculture and technology. Vietnam is said to represent a growing market for Slovak exports.
The kidnapping case and the last vacation
The kidnapping case is revived because of To Lam, the head of the Vietnamese secret service at the time, who coordinated the action with the help of Slovak officials, including the then police chief Tibor Gašpar and Robert Kaliňák, who led the interior at that time.
Fico’s vacation in Hanoi, which he spent in January 2025 at the luxury Capella Hanoi hotel, where he had informal meetings with Vietnamese representatives, sparked criticism from the opposition for inconsistency with domestic problems.
