Ambassadors’ Conference

In Basel, Alain Berset addresses the annual conference of ambassadors and the external network. After seven years at the Federal Department of Home Affairs, he says he brings “a relatively fresh eye” to Swiss diplomacy.

What he has heard from his counterparts comes down to three things: reliability, no hidden agenda, a stable commitment. He looks for the source in institutional history: in 1848, the victors of the Sonderbund did not crush the vanquished, they integrated them. He also recalls Swiss emigration in the 19th century and describes Basel as “the only Swiss Hanseatic city”. The central sentence: “Openness is in our Swiss DNA, and has been for a very long time.”

Speeches on this site

• Conférence des ambassadeurs (French-language page)

Sources

• Federal Council, speech of 21.08.2018