Events

29 Apr 2019

Switzerland plans to open embassy in Minsk in summer 2019

MINSK, 29 April (BelTA) - Switzerland, which does not have a full-fledged embassy in Belarus, plans to open it in Minsk in the summer of 2019, head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Council of States, co-chairman of the Switzerland-Belarus parliamentary group of friendship Filippo Lombardi told the media, BelTA has learned.

Now there is a branch of the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation in Minsk. It was officially launched on 11 February 2008. "We are planning to open the embassy this summer. We are working to ensure that this decision is made soon. We are considering all possible options,” Filippo Lombardi said.

Trade and economic relations between the two countries have been rapidly developing. Many companies with Swiss capital are already working in Belarus, the MP said.

Filippo Lombardi is also deputy chairman of the OSCE PA Silk Road Support Group. He is attending its conference “Belt and Road: Strengthening cooperation for sustainable development and prosperity".

The first conference of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Silk Road Support Group took place in Azerbaijan in March 2018. The purpose of the Minsk event is to present economic and investment capabilities of Belarus as an important hub of the Silk Road economic belt. The Minsk conference has drawn MPs and business representatives from Austria, Azerbaijan, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and Switzerland.

The OSCE PA Silk Road Support Group was set up at the 26th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Minsk in 2017. The group is designed to expand the areas of cooperation and strengthen political, economic and cultural relations between the participating states. The group plays a role of a platform to promote mutually beneficial economic and trade ties, in particular through promoting connectivity and developing transport corridors, transport and trade facilitation measures, promoting free and secure movement of persons, goods, services and investments.