Yves Rossier has been Swiss Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs since 2012
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Yves Rossier, Swiss Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has asked Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter to relocate him to a diplomatic post.
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swissinfo.ch and agencies, swissinfo.ch and agencies
A foreign ministry spokesman on Friday confirmed a report in the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.
Burkhalter said he would advise on the new appointments – including Rossier’s new post – in autumn, according to an internal note to foreign ministry staff seen by the Swiss News Agency.
Rossier, 55, was named the foreign ministry’s number two at the beginning of 2012. He was Switzerland’s top negotiator for talks on institutional issues with the European Union until Jacques de Watteville was handed the role last August.
He then focused increasingly on Swiss relations with countries in the Middle East. In April he made an official visit to Baghdad, Najaf and Erbil in Iraq – the first high-level visit to Iraq by a senior Swiss diplomat for over a decade.
Rossier, a lawyer by training, had studied at the University of Fribourg, the College of Europe in Bruges and McGill University in Montreal.
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Rossier travelled to Iraq from April 19 to 22 to intensify contacts with the federal authorities in Baghdad and the Kurdish authorities in Erbil, the foreign ministry said on Friday. There he was briefed on the country’s fight against the Islamic State and the regional situation. He also visited Swiss humanitarian aid projects, while identifying…
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