President of Switzerland: Georgia is our "special partner"

Georgia is one of Switzerland's "special partner" countries and it is looking for ways to deepen bilateral cooperation with Georgia, says the President of Switzerland.  

The work carried out in 2014 by Switzerland during its term as chairman nation of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was summarised during a meeting between Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the President of Switzerland Didier Burkhalter, who is also the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation.

The pair met during the framework of the World Economic Forum in Davos. At their meeting special attention was paid to a wide range of bilateral relations, said the PM's press service.

Met Didier Burkhalter, Head of Dept. of Foreign Affairs of #Switzerland. Discussed strengthening of economical cooperation w/ #Georgia

— Irakli Garibashvili (@PrimeMinisterGE) January 22, 2015

Garibashvili thanked Burkhalter for Switzerland's role as mediator in the relations between Georgia and Russia. Garibashvili provided Burkhalter with information regarding the challenges facing the Geneva Talks and the state of formal dialogue between Georgia's special representative for relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze and Russia's deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin.

In turn, the Swiss president said his country considers Georgia its "special partner".

Possibilities of deepening bilateral cooperation between the two nations and ways to make full use of these prospects, especially in terms of economic cooperation and investments, were also discussed at the meeting.

At the meeting it was also confirmed that although Switzerland had transferred OSCE chairmanship to Serbia, Angelo Gnaedinger in his role as Special Representative for the South Caucasus appointed by the Swiss government, will continue his activities in this capacity through 2015.