In the wake of the abduction of a Vietnamese national in Germany at the beginning of August this year, the Vietnamese Ambassador was once again summoned to the Federal Foreign Office on 21 September, reported government spokesperson Steffen Seibert on Friday at the government press conference in Berlin.

Unacceptable violation of the law

The Vietnamese government has not used the weeks since the abduction to rebuild the trust that had been destroyed in bilateral relations, in spite of the calls of the German government.

The abduction was an "unacceptable violation of the law". That is why the German government has expelled another employee of the Vietnamese Embassy. "He now has four week to leave Germany with his family," said Steffen Seibert.

A blatant breach of international law

A spokesperson from the Federal Foreign Office reiterated that there is clear evidence of the abduction, which is why the Federal Public Prosecutor General began criminal investigations on 10 August.

The abduction is a blatant breach of German and international law, and cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.

To date the Vietnamese government has not complied with demands for an apology and assurance that the law will not be violated again in this way in future. Nor has Viet Nam pledged to hold the responsible parties to account.

Back in August, the Federal Foreign Office declared a representative of Viet Nam’s intelligence service a persona non grata, and gave him 48 hours to leave Germany.