WEF 2024: Swiss president welcomes Chinese premier
Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in Switzerland on Sunday for a visit lasting several days. Defence Minister Viola Amherd, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, received the high-ranking state guest on the tarmac at Zurich Airport in the early afternoon.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Español
es
WEF 2024: La presidenta suiza recibe al primer ministro chino
Switzerland gave the Chinese guest an exceptional welcome. It is rare for a Swiss president to meet a foreign head of government at the airport. Li Qiang is the highest-ranking Chinese government representative in Switzerland since President Xi Jinping’s visit in 2017.
Li Qiang wants to meet the government in Bern on Monday. He is to be officially received with military honours at the Lohn estate near Bern. Talks between the Chinese and Swiss delegations will take place during the visit. Improving economic relations with China is likely to take centre stage.
China has been Switzerland’s most important trading partner in Asia since 2010 and is Switzerland’s third most important trading partner after the EU and the US.
The Chinese Premier, who has only been in office since March, is also taking part in this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, which begins on Monday. China is considered an ally of Russia, and the West hopes to use Beijing to influence Moscow in the Ukraine war, for example.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
This content was published on
Switzerland's economy grew slightly at the start of 2024, with growth in the service sector contrasting with weak growth in industry.
Swiss employment rate rises in first quarter of 2023
This content was published on
The number of women and foreign nationals in employment increased particularly strongly, the Federal Statistical Office said on Thursday.
Coercion still an issue in Swiss welfare system, report finds
This content was published on
The rights of vulnerable people are still sometimes disregarded by the Swiss welfare system, a national research programme has found.
This content was published on
Viola Amherd has expressed her “deep shock” at the assassination attempt on Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on Wednesday.
This content was published on
A man injured half a dozen people with knives, two of them seriously, before being arrested on Wednesday in northern Switzerland.
Switzerland to introduce flight passenger database
This content was published on
Switzerland plans to introduce a flight passenger database to collect and process personal data in a bid to combat terrorism and serious crime.
Government plans to invest over CHF16bn in Swiss rail network
This content was published on
The federal government intends to invest CHF16.4 billion ($18.1 billion) in railway infrastructure between 2025 and 2028, CHF2 billion more than for the current period.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
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.