India and Switzerland held the 13th round of Foreign Office Consultations on Thursday in New Delhi, during which the discussions focused on the progress in trade and investment, including the India-European Free Trade Association trade and economic partnership agreement negotiations.
The Indian delegation was led by Tanmaya Lal, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs, and the Swiss side was headed by Alexandre Fasel, State Secretary of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, a statement said.
The co-chairs reviewed the entire gamut of India-Switzerland bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and regional and global matters of mutual interest.
The discussion focused over the progress in diverse sectors including trade & investment, and the India-EFTA TEPA (Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) with EFTA (European Free Trade Association) countries comprising Switzerland, Iceland, Norway & Liechtenstein).
It also focused on innovation and sustainability, air services matters, technology and mobility. They also discussed ways of increasing collaboration in new and emerging sectors of digitisation, AI and Quantum.
The co-chairs welcomed the impact of India-Swiss Innovation Platform to strengthen S&T ties by harnessing innovation capacity to develop the startup ecosystem of the two countries.
They also discussed the recent opening of EFTA dedicated desk at Invest India in New Delhi and highlighted its significance for implementation and operationalization of the TEPA. Recognising the positive outcomes of the MoU on ‘Technical cooperation in the field of Climate Change and Environment’ signed in 2019, co-chairs looked forward to an early renewal of the MoU.
Both sides agreed to convene the next round of India-Switzerland Foreign Office Consultations at mutually convenient dates, the statement added.
