Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter to attend the 2017 WEF Annual Meeting

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Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter at the 2017 WEF Annual Meeting. — At the WEF 2017 Didier Burkhalter presents US Secretary of State John Kerry with a collection of Swiss diplomatic documents from the period of Switzerland’s protecting power mandate for the United States and Cuba. © Keystone ©

At the World Economic Forum, Didier Burkhalter met for the last time with US Secretary of State John Kerry. In honour of the occasion, he presented Kerry with a collection of Swiss diplomatic documents from the period of Switzerland’s protecting power mandate for the United States and Cuba. The collection bears the title “If Neutral Switzerland Did Not Exist, We Would Have to Invent It”.

“If Neutral Switzerland Did Not Exist, We Would Have to Invent It”:A Brief Selection of Documents on the Relations Between Switzerland, The United States, and Cuba 1961–1971 (PDF, Number of pages 97, 4.8 MB, English)

Bilateral meetings

Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter has placed peace and security at the top of his priorities for the 2017 WEF Annual Meeting in Davos.

In that regard, he met with Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Syria, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir and the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif. During his talks with the Iranian foreign minister he also discussed the protecting power mandate exercised by Switzerland between Iran and the United States during the US presidential transition period. In terms of Switzerland's relations with the EU, a meeting took place with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini.