Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus O.Kravchenko visits Switzerland

13 December 2019

13-12-2019

On December 12, 2019 as part of the visit of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Oleg Kravchenko, to the Swiss Confederation, Bern hosted the next round of political consultations between the Belarusian Foreign Ministry and the Swiss Foreign Ministry. Previous consultations were held in December 2018 in Minsk.

The Swiss delegation was led by the Deputy Secretary of State for the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Krystyna Marty Lang.

During the consultations, a wide range of issues on the bilateral agenda, including the state and prospects for further development of political dialogue, trade, economic, investment, scientific, humanitarian, consular cooperation, interaction in international organizations, in the fields of human rights protection and emergency response were discussed. The parties exchanged views on the development of relations with the European Union and third countries, relevant topics of international politics.

Significant intensification of Belarusian-Swiss cooperation in recent years was noted, which, in particular, reflected in the upgrade of the Swiss representation in Minsk to a full-fledged Embassy and exchanging high-level visits. Mutual interest was confirmed in strengthening and expanding these trends and in further increasing the level and intensity of interstate contacts.

In the Federal Assembly (Parliament) of the Swiss Confederation, O.Kravchenko made a keynote speech at the round table “Belarus: between East and West”, dedicated to the second anniversary of the formation of the Parliamentary Group of Friendship “Switzerland – Belarus”. O.Kravchenko presented the priorities of the foreign policy of the Republic of Belarus, the initiatives of the Head of the Belarusian state to strengthen international security, analyzed the significant potential of the Belarusian-Swiss cooperation, including issues of promoting a peaceful settlement of international conflicts.

The event, chaired by the leaders of the Groups of Friendship in the Parliaments of Belarus and Switzerland, was attended by more than 50 representatives of political and academic circles, business community, as well as the Belarusian diaspora.

In Zurich, O. Kravchenko met with the group of leading experts from the Center for Security Studies of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The Deputy Minister presented the approaches of Belarus on the situation in the European region, discussed the possibilities of expanding cooperation with the Swiss analytical community.