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First visit abroad: Vienna
By tradition, the President of the Swiss Confederation makes his first trip abroad to Austria. On 8 January, he is at the Vienna International Centre. With Yuri Fedotov, Director-General of the UN Office at Vienna and of UNODC, he discusses the return of stolen assets, drug policy, human trafficking and money laundering. Yukiya Amano, Director General of the IAEA, thanks Switzerland for its contribution to the renovation of the Seibersdorf laboratories; they discuss the nuclear agreement with Iran and North Korea. Next come Thomas Greminger, OSCE Secretary General, and Harlem Désir, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, with whom the talk turns to “fake news”.
On 9 January, Alexander Van der Bellen receives him with military honours at the Hofburg. Then come the new Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, the President of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, and the Minister for Culture and European Affairs, Gernot Blümel. Austria is about to hold the presidency of the European Union. Before the press, Alain Berset calls the EU’s decision to recognise Swiss stock exchange equivalence for one year only “inakzeptabel”: a technical file, he says, has been politicised. He argues for a permanent mechanism to distribute asylum seekers across Europe and for the European integration of the Western Balkans.
The visit ends at the Leopold Museum, at the major Ferdinand Hodler exhibition, which he had placed under his patronage in autumn 2017 with his Austrian counterpart at the time, Thomas Drozda. It was in Vienna that Hodler gained international fame.
Monday 8 January 2018 — Vienna
- Meeting with Yuri Fedotov, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of UNODC
- Meeting with Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
- Meeting with Thomas Greminger, OSCE Secretary General
- Meeting with Harlem Désir, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media
Tuesday 9 January 2018 — Vienna
- Welcome with military honours by Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen at the Hofburg
- One-to-one meeting, then talks between the delegations, with Minister of Health and Social Affairs Beate Hartinger-Klein present
- Press conference with President Van der Bellen
- Lunch hosted by the Federal President
- Meeting with Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
- Meeting with Gernot Blümel, Minister for Culture and European Affairs
- Meeting with Wolfgang Sobotka, President of the National Council
- Visit to the exhibition “Ferdinand Hodler. Wahlverwandtschaften von Klimt bis Schiele” at the Leopold Museum
Speeches on this site
- Point de presse avec le président autrichien Alexander Van der Bellen (in German, French-language page)
Sources