Flurry of meetings mark Swiss ministers’ WEF presence
Four members of the Swiss government attended the opening of the House of Switzerland centre at this year's WEF meeting in Davos.
Keystone
Swiss government ministers have held a series of bilateral meetings on the first day of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos.
Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said he discussed plans with his counterpart from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed al-Jadaan, to boost financial relations with the Arab kingdom. Maurer told a news conference that the case of the killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi had not been mentioned in the talks.
Maurer also met his counterparts from Israel and New Zealand on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis held separate talks with the Georgian prime minister, Mamuka Bakhtadze, and with the foreign minister of Ethiopia, Workneh Gebeyehu. The meetings focused on asylum issues and foreign investment respectively.
For their part, Economics Minister Guy Parmelin and Interior Minister Alain Berset had meetings with government ministers from Chile, Egypt and South Africa.
Tuesday saw the opening of a new meeting centre, the House of SwitzerlandExternal link, for Swiss government representatives and business leaders.
The House of Switzerland in the centre of Davos will host four official events over the next few days.
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“We reject diktats. The most commonly used word in our constitution is ‘freedom’ and we are proud of that,” said Maurer during his opening address in DavosExternal link on Tuesday morning. “We are free to accept responsibility for ourselves and others,” he explained. Maurer, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency alongside his role as the…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.