At the Parliament Building, Alain Berset receives the heads of mission accredited to Switzerland for the first time in his presidential year. The Apostolic Nuncio, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, presents the New Year greetings. The Vice-President of the Federal Council and the presidents of both chambers attend. He opens with a sentence he had […]
By tradition, the first visit abroad of the President of the Swiss Confederation is to Austria. On 12 January, Alain Berset is at the OSCE: he meets the Secretary General, Helga Maria Schmid, and the Chairman-in-Office, North Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani. On the agenda: the European security architecture, Ukraine, the Balkans. On 13 January, […]
Five years after the 2018 Davos Declaration, Alain Berset brings the European ministers of culture together again. Thirty-one countries are represented, along with civil society organisations and construction and real estate companies. He opens the conference on 15 January: “At present, high-quality Baukultur is more important than ever. Without it, there can be no sustainable […]
On 17 January, Alain Berset opens the 53rd WEF Annual Meeting with Klaus Schwab. His speech starts from Russia’s war against Ukraine, an attack on international law by a permanent member of the Security Council. He stresses inequality, which he presents as the source of populism, and the fragility of poor countries hit by the […]
Ahead of the International Day on 27 January, Alain Berset receives Holocaust survivors living in Switzerland in Berne. The meeting is organised with the Gamaraal Foundation and the Swiss Association of Jewish Welfare Committees (VSJF). He thus continues a tradition set by his predecessors. In his welcome address, he names the dangers that threaten memory: […]
Switzerland and the World Health Organization launch Project Rosling in Geneva, with the Gapminder Foundation, in tribute to the Swedish statistician Hans Rosling. Aim: to bring data producers and users closer together for fact-based decisions. Alain Berset sees a role in it for International Geneva, home to 39 international organisations and more than 400 NGOs: […]
For 27 January, Alain Berset publishes a message from the President of the Swiss Confederation. He places the commemoration “under the twin sign of historical truth and resistance”. He denounces the so-called “denazification” invoked by Russia to invade Ukraine: a crude pretext and “a distortion of history”. He recalls that 80 years earlier, in January […]
The first visit by a President of the Swiss Confederation to Botswana. Alain Berset discusses bilateral relations and global issues with President Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi: cooperation at the UN, democracy and human rights, Russia’s war in Ukraine. With Foreign Minister Lemogang Kwape, he signs a declaration of intent on health cooperation. He visits the […]
In Maputo, Alain Berset holds talks with President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi. Mozambique has been a priority country for Swiss cooperation since 1979; Switzerland played a central role in the 2019 peace agreement between Frelimo and Renamo. The two countries sit together on the Security Council in 2023 and 2024 and want to bring joint initiatives […]
Alain Berset receives Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights since October 2022, for a courtesy visit. He praises the work of the Office of the High Commissioner in countries affected by conflict and crisis. The two men agree on the role of human rights in development and conflict prevention, and on closer cooperation […]
With the support of the WHO, Switzerland hosts the 5th “Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety” in Montreux, postponed since 2020 because of the pandemic. More than 600 experts and nearly 80 delegations, including some thirty health ministers. The WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, attends. Theme: “Less Harm, Better Care – from Resolution to Implementation”. […]
At the invitation of Luxembourg’s Minister of Culture, Sam Tanson, the ministers of culture of the German-speaking countries and regions meet in Luxembourg: Germany with Claudia Roth, Austria with Andrea Mayer, Liechtenstein with Manuel Frick, the German-speaking Community of Belgium with Isabelle Weykmans, and Switzerland with Alain Berset. Working session at the Ministry of Culture, […]
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