Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker visits Switzerland for first time
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker visits Switzerland for first time
Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker has made his first official visit to Switzerland since taking office. The talks in Bern with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis centred on bilateral relations.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
The topics discussed included transport, environmental protection and regional development, the finance ministry said on Thursday.
Both sides recognised the cooperation in flood protection, where a major joint project is being driven forward with the regulation of the Alpine Rhine (Rhesi). The corresponding state treaty has been in force since July 1.
European security was also a key topic of discussion. The delegations discussed the prospects in the Western Balkans as well as the war in Ukraine and plans for the reconstruction of the country, according to a statement.
+ Why the Swiss army is training for an emergency in Austria
Keller-Sutter, Cassis and Stocker also discussed the objectives of Switzerland’s chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the coming year.
Trade policy – including the impact of US customs policy and the importance of open and regulated trade for global prosperity – was also a topic at the meeting.
According to the foreign ministry, Austria is one of Switzerland’s most important trading partners worldwide. Last year, Austria was the tenth most important trading partner, with a trade volume of CHF17.2 billion ($21.5 billion). Switzerland is also one of the most important investors in Austria.
According to the APA news agency, Switzerland is Austria’s fifth largest trading partner and the third most important tourism market.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into 0045nglish. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
More
A Geneva-based global health foundation came close to ‘collapse’. Where were regulators?
More
Switzerland and France ‘have shaped each other profoundly’
More
Will Switzerland finally do away with imputed rental-value tax on homeowners?
More
The Brics and Switzerland: aspirations and reality
More
In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
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.