Swiss ambassadors wrap up annual conference

The Swiss Foreign Minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey (right) with SDC Director, Walter Fust (left) at the conference Keystone

The annual conference of Swiss ambassadors has drawn to a close with few complaints about plans to reform the diplomatic service.

Switzerland’s overseas diplomats are now returning to their posts after four days of discussions in the Swiss capital, Bern.

The Swiss foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, used the event to call for closer cooperation between Swiss embassies and the coordination bureaux of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Broad welcome

Ulrich Lehner, head of the foreign ministry’s centre for analysis, said Calmy-Rey’s plans were broadly welcomed by the 108 diplomats present at the conference.

The career diplomats were joined for the first time this year by sixteen senior officials in charge of the SDC’s overseas offices.

Lehner made it clear that the details of any reorganisation of the diplomatic service have yet to be finalised and plans to merge a limited number of embassies with SDC bureaux are still in an early phase.

Presidential matters

The conference was also marked by an address from the 2003 Swiss president, Pascal Couchepin, who used the occasion to call for a re-evaluation of the post of president.

Couchepin said the Swiss system – where the presidency is rotated annually among the seven cabinet members – was outdated, adding that it was hard for the president to build up contacts abroad when the post was limited to one year.

Following the discussions in Bern, those attending the conference were given the opportunity to escape the capital on a trip into the countryside of canton Valais.

swissinfo with agencies

Key facts

Switzerland’s diplomatic service:
93 embassies.
12 missions in international organisations.
44 consulates.
35 SDC bureaux.