Welcome to the 80th issue of the CEEasia Briefing.
In this issue, we dissect the following topics:
- Japanese Foreign Minister visits Slovakia
- China-Poland Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation meets in Beijing
- Taiwan expands drone cooperation with Czechia
If you like what you see, please forward this message to your friends and colleagues who can subscribe here.
Do you need to know more about the Indo-Pacific? Don’t hesitate to shoot us a message about custom analysis tailored to your needs.
1. Japanese Foreign Minister visits Slovakia
What’s going on? The first visit by a Japanese foreign minister to Slovakia since 2017 took place in late August, focusing on deepening bilateral political and economic cooperation as well as revitalising the V4+Japan minilateral platform. Slovakia currently holds the presidency of the Visegrad Four and hosted the V4+Japan summit, which, combined with Nippon Steel’s investment in Košice, a city in eastern Slovakia, allows it to initiate a deeper phase of bilateral relations.
Going deeper… During his visit to Slovakia on 31 August, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi met with his Slovak counterpart, Juraj Blanár, and Prime Minister Robert Fico. Apart from mutual assurances of the importance of their bilateral relations, the Slovak side expressed its interest in welcoming a mission from Keidanren (Japan’s leading business federation) to Slovakia and interest in upgrading bilateral relations to the level of a strategic partnership. Since Fico came to power in late 2023, Slovakia has already upgraded ties to a Strategic Partnership with South Korea and China, and to a Comprehensive Partnership with India, highlighting the administration’s newly found interest in the Indo-Pacific region.
The V4+Japan summit, which took place on 1 September, was also the first since 2021, when the five foreign ministers last met in Warsaw. Subsequently, disagreements among the Central European states, particularly between Hungary and Poland over their positions toward Russia and the war in Ukraine, brought meetings in this format to a halt. The September summit focused primarily on economic security, AI global governance, and security. The participating sides agreed on the indivisibility of security in the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic regions, as well as on the need to intensify dialogue.
This means… Motegi visited Slovakia at a time when the Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel is taking over the management of the steelworks in Košice following its acquisition of U.S. Steel. Combined with the potential of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and Keidanren missions to attract more Japanese companies to invest in Slovakia, it could lead to a substantial strengthening of economic cooperation between the two countries. The location of the steelworks, which is 90 km from the Ukrainian border, to which it has a direct wide-gauge railway connection, also enables it to participate in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. This line of thinking is already suggested by steps taken by the plant’s new management, such as hosting the Ukrainian Ambassador in July. In addition, the Japanese government has also expressed strong interest in participating in Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Still… The revival of the Visegrad Group, including the V4+Japan format, is good news for the further development of relations among the participating countries. However, the three-year crisis of the grouping was not an isolated episode, but rather another manifestation of the recurring questions surrounding the cohesion and identity of the V4. It is therefore in Slovakia’s interest, as well as that of the other participating states, to invest effort in parallel formats through which relations with Japan can also be cultivated.
In this respect, the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) appears particularly promising, even though Slovak diplomacy has so far approached it somewhat ambivalently. Foreign Minister Blanár invited Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to visit Slovakia in April 2027 on the occasion of the 3SI summit, which Slovakia will chair at that time. Japan has been a 3SI strategic partner since 2024. If such a visit takes place, it is reasonable to expect that the two countries could conclude a strategic partnership, an objective strongly promoted by the Slovak side.
Moreover… At the same time, however, it is necessary to emphasise the need for greater sensitivity to developments in the Indo-Pacific, particularly with regard to China. Fico’s participation, as the only EU leader, in the commemorations marking the end of the Second World War in Beijing in September 2025 was viewed negatively in Tokyo. This need for predictability extends beyond Slovakia’s policy toward China to its positions on Ukraine and Russia, as well as to its conduct as a member of the EU and NATO.
2. China-Poland Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation meets in Beijing
What’s going on? On August 27, China and Poland held the 20th session of their Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation. The event marked the 10th anniversary of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries and was co-chaired by China’s Vice Minister of Commerce Ling Ji and Poland’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Technology Michal Baranowski.
Unsurprisingly… The official readout from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce emphasized dialogue and the ‘two-way’ expansion of bilateral trade and investment. In contrast, Baranowski’s social media posts highlighted the continued trade imbalance and the challenge of managing cooperation and competition at the same time. The Chinese readout also called for continued cooperation in agricultural processing, power batteries, offshore wind, and rail and maritime transport, all of which are areas of interest under the 2024-2027 Action Plan on Strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, announced by Xi Jinping and former President Andrzej Duda in 2024.
Going deeper… Sino-Polish economic ties are already expanding. In July 2026, Chinese automaker BYD signed an agreement with Poland-based renewable energy developer Greenvolt Power to build the country’s largest energy storage facility in Siedlce. The project is expected to have a storage capacity of 600MW/2.4GWh, marking another cooperation between the two companies following two previous projects in Poland with a combined capacity of 1.6 GWh, as well as the 99.8 MW/288.6 MWh project in Hungary, which is the country’s largest battery storage project to date. The Haohan system installed will use the more cost-efficient lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistry, with both Poland and China possessing some of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery production capacities.
Chinese company ZTT Submarine Cable & System is also involved in Poland’s Baltica 2 offshore wind farm, a major project developed by Danish Orsted and Poland’s PGE Group. With an expected capacity of 1.5 GW, it is one of the largest offshore wind projects under construction in Europe.
This means… Despite the de-risking rhetoric, Chinese involvement in Europe’s energy transition continues to rise, highlighting the difficulty of diversifying supply chains away from China, especially in green technology. Chinese dominance in LFP battery chemistry, in particular, highlights this challenge. That said, the Siedlce project will function as a deployment facility only, meaning that it will not include localized chemical R&D or the transfer of manufacturing know-how.
3. Taiwan expands drone cooperation with Czechia
What’s going on? Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Drone Diplomacy Task Force, hosted a Taiwan-Czechia-Ukraine workshop on battlefield drone systems at the Asia Innovation Center in Chiayi. The event concluded with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Chiang Zhen-wei, director of the Drone Diplomacy Task Force, and Markéta Pekarová Adamová, former president of the Czech Chamber of Deputies.
Going deeper… The workshop focused on practical battlefield lessons from Ukraine’s drone warfare and aimed to train instructors for future drone-diplomacy projects. It brought together 22 experts from Taiwan’s tertiary education, as well as practical operators and research bodies, for technical exchanges and experience sharing. The MOU formalizes discussions that began during Pekarová Adamová’s earlier visit to the Chiayi center. It builds on complementary strengths: Czech expertise in sensors, propulsion, and autonomous systems paired with Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductor technology and manufacturing.
This means… Taiwan is effectively turning its technological and manufacturing strengths into diplomatic and strategic influence. This event falls into Taiwan’s Diplomatic Allies Prosperity Project to build resilient supply chains and “non-red” (i.e., non-China) industrial partnerships. Such cooperation is advancing independently of Prague’s political mood. Since Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s coalition took office in December 2025, it has pulled back from the “values diplomacy” of the previous Fiala government, an approach that emphasised democratic principles, human rights and support for democratic partners like Taiwan and Ukraine as a matter of principle rather than calculation. It also declined to provide a government plane for Senate President Miloš Vystrčil’s June 2026 Taiwan visit.
Yet the tech and trade layer of the Czechia-Taiwan relationship has kept growing regardless. It draws on institutional groundwork laid before the political shift: direct Prague-Taipei flights, a CzechInvest office in Taipei, and projects in the semiconductor industry. This strengthens Taiwan’s supply chain role in Europe, particularly supporting Central European defense resilience against authoritarian threats. Indeed, Taiwan’s drone exports to Czechia alone exceeded $100 million in the first quarter of 2026, making Czechia Taiwan’s largest drone market in that period.
Quick takes on CEEasia developments
HONG KONG | The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has closed Consulate General in Hong Kong and is planning to open a new one in Miami by autumn 2026. This decision is notable given the government’s stated efforts to improve relations with China, although the ministry attributes the Hong Kong closure primarily to economic considerations and stresses that it does not signal a change in its approach to Hong Kong or Macau.
VIETNAM | On August 21st, 2026, Vietnam and Poland agreed to strengthen tourism cooperation, aviation connectivity, and business exchanges during a meeting in Hanoi, following a 42.6% increase in Polish tourist arrivals to Vietnam in 2025. LOT Polish Airlines plans to launch direct flights between Warsaw and Ho Chi Minh City three times a week from March 2027, while a separate Warsaw–Hanoi route is also planned. Both sides will also advance a tourism cooperation memorandum of understanding and promote business partnerships.
SINGAPORE | On August 6th, 2026, Václav Kobera, director of the Department of New Technologies and Space Agency at the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, led a delegation to Singapore to explore cooperation in the space sector. The delegation met with Singapore’s National Space Agency, research institutions, universities, and space companies to discuss potential collaboration in space research, technology, and industry.
THAILAND | The Polish Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) has signed a nearly $10.5 million term loan agreement with medical supplies manufacturer Mercator Medical S.A. and its Thai subsidiary, Mercator Medical (Thailand) Ltd. The loan will help cover part of the costs of constructing a combined heat and power plant at the company’s production sites in Thailand.
VIETNAM | Vietnam’s military delegation visited Slovakia’s artillery manufacturers in late July, following a previously expressed interest in Slovak defense equipment. Along with Slovakia’s PM Fico’s visit to Vietnam and the subsequent establishment of a bilateral strategic partnership in April, this development suggests an ongoing rapprochement of the two countries.
ASEAN | Sweden, Poland, Romania and Lithuania have strengthened their partnership with ASEAN in July by acceding to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. This treaty embodies the principles of peaceful and cooperative relations between nations and serves as ASEAN’s instrument of promoting a rules-based international order. The acceding countries‘ representatives stressed various areas of bilateral cooperation such as trade, defense, technology and the green transition.
CHINA | In an interview on CGTN’s Leaders Talk, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini emphasized dialogue between China and the EU and presented Slovakia as a safe environment for Chinese investment. His remarks are consistent with Slovakia’s increasingly pro-engagement approach toward China, which prioritizes economic cooperation and investment.
