India - Switzerland Relations Political Relations
India and Switzerland have had cordial and friendly relations since India’s independence. The relationship is based on shared values of democracy, multiculturalism and the rule of law. Independent India’s policy of non-alignment and Switzerland’s traditional policy of neutrality helped to develop a close understanding between the leaders of the two countries. A Treaty of Friendship between India and Switzerland was signed at New Delhi on August 14, 1948, one of the first such treaties to be signed by the independent India. The Treaty provided for the establishment of diplomatic missions between the two countries and missions were opened in Berne and Delhi soon after its conclusion. Switzerland established its Consulates General in Mumbai and Bangalore. India has a Consulate General in Geneva. During the course of 2008, India and Switzerland celebrated the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Friendship Treaty, an important milestone in the annals of Indo-Swiss bilateral relations. In recognition of the growth of multi-faceted bilateral relationship over six decades and to outline the future areas of mutual interest and cooperation, India and Switzerland have decided to elevate the bilateral relationship to a new and higher level by agreeing to establish a Privileged Partnership between them.
High level visits
Exchange of high level visits in the recent past has provided an impetus to strengthen bilateral cooperation. The visit of the then Swiss President, Mr. Flavio Cotti in 1998 was the first ever visit of a Swiss President to India. Later, President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr. Pascal Couchepin, paid a State Visit to India from 6-12 November, 2003. The last high-level visit to India has been that of the Swiss President, Mrs. Micheline Calmy-Rey from 5-7 November, 2007. After the State Visit of President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in May 2005, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, President of India visited Switzerland from September 30 to October 4, 2011.
In addition, there have been regular bilateral ministerial exchanges. Mr. Johann Schneider-Amman, Federal Councillor for Economic Affairs, Education and Research, visited India from 15-17 May, 2015, leading an economic mission of 25 business representatives, federal and cantonal officials and Members of Parliament. In Delhi he had meetings with Hon’ble Finance Minister, MOS (IC) for Commerce & Industries and the MOS (I/C) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. He also attended a business meeting arranged by FICCI. He also visited Bangalore where he officially launched the CTI Market entry, an initiative of the Swiss Government’s Mission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) and managed by Swissnex India and aimed at encouraging Swiss start-ups to enter the Indian market. Swiss Federal Councillor for Economic Affairs Mr. Johann N. Schneider Ammann visited India from 7-9 April, 2011, along with a high level business delegation. Swiss Federal Councillor Alain Berset visited India from October 1-3, 2012 and met Minister of Health & Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Culture Kumari Selja and Minister of S&T, Shri Vayalar Ravi to expand scope of bilateral cooperation in health, culture and S&T. Swiss Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard visited India from October 18-20, 2012 primarily to represent Switzerland at the UN Conference on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad. She met Smt. Jayanti Natarajan, Minister for Environment & Forests; Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New & Renewable Energy; Shri C.P. Joshi, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Urban Development; and Shri Ajit Singh, Minister for Civil Aviation and discussed issues of mutual interest and cooperation. A Protocol to the revised Double Taxation Agreement was also signed between the two countries during the visit of Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey in August 2010, which entered into force on 7th October, 2011. Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter visited India from November 11-12, 2013 in connection with ASEM-FMs Meeting in New Delhi. During this visit, Mr. Burkhalter made a courtesy call on EAM.
From Indian side, there have been several important ministerial visits. Shri Kamal Nath, Minister for Road Transport & Highways led a 5-member delegation to Switzerland on 11-12 August, 2009. A 4-member delegation led by Minister of Textiles, Mr. Dayanidhi Maran, visited Switzerland from 25-28 October, 2009. An 18-member Indian Parliamentary Goodwill delegation led by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal visited Switzerland from 1-4 April, 2010. Smt. Meira Kumar, Speaker, Lok Sabha, led an delegation to Switzerland from 16-17 July, 2010 to attend the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) Sixth Annual Meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament in Berne. Later, she visited Berne to participate in the 125th IPU Meeting from 16-19 October, 2011. An Investment Round Table was held in Geneva on 8 April 2013 during the visit of Shri Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce & Industry. Minister of State (IC) for Sports & Youth Affairs Shri Jitender Singh visited Lausanne from 14-15 May 2013 in connection with the meetings with the International Olympic Committee. The Indian delegation led by EAM Shri Salman Khurshid participated at the Geneva II Conference on Syria held in Montreux on January 22, 2014.
Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha, Smt. Sumitra Mahajan, led a high-level Parliamentary delegation to the 131st session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, held in Geneva from 12-16 October 2014. The delegation included Prof. P.J. Kurien, Hon’ble Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha and five MPs, apart from senior officials of Parliament Secretariat. Earlier, Hon’ble Speaker had visited Geneva for attending the 9th Annual Meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament from 4 & 5 September 2014. She again led a high-level Parliamentary delegation to the 133rd session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, held in Geneva from 17-21 October, 2015.
Among the official visits, Dr. S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary, visited Switzerland from 10-13 Sept. 2015 for discussions with Swiss State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Yves Rossier on various ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation. He also held discussions with the State Secretary for Economic Affairs. Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, visited Switzerland on 16-19 Sept, 2015 to participate in the 3rd meeting of the Indo-Swiss Joint Committee on S&T held on 18 Sept. 2015 in Berne. Secretary (DST) co-chaired the meeting with State Secretary Mauro Dell’Ambrogio, State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI. The meeting reviewed the bilateral S&T cooperation and proposed measures to reinforce the cooperation. A delegation from International Cooperation Division of M/o Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, visited Switzerland from 31 August to 8 Sept. 2015 for a study trip cum discussions on modalities of cooperation between the two countries in the field of skill development. In official discussions, the two sides agreed to conclude an MOU which will have specific provisions for setting up a joint working group and funding instrument to take forward bilateral cooperation in skills development. Shri Ajit Mohan Sharan, Secretary, D/o Sports visited Head Quarters of IOC in Lausanne (Switzerland) from 23-25 March, 2015 for working out the modalities for the proposed meeting of the delegation led by Mr. Thomas Bach, President, International Olympic Committee (IOC) with Hon’ble PM of India on 27 April, 2015 to discuss PM’s vision on developing sports in India. The Secretary of the International State Council Sectt., Shri H.K. Dash, visited Bern and Lenzburg in Switzerland from 15-19 March, 2015 for participation in the Board meeting of the forum of federations. Shri Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary, led an Indian delegation to Switzerland on 15 October 2014 for talks on information sharing on tax issues with the Swiss State Secretary for Finance, Mr. Jacques de Watteville.
High-level Indian delegations have participated in the World Economic Forum (WEF) since the early 90s. At WEF 2015 (January, 2015), the official Indian delegation led by Mr. Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Finance Minister, accompanied by Mr. Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble MOS (I/C) for Power, Coal and NRE and Mr. Devendra G. Fadnavis, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, attended the WEF meeting. Mr. N. Chandra Babu Naidu, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh also attended the WEF meeting as an invitee and so did Secretary (IPP), DIPP, M/o Commerce and Industries, Chief Economic Advisor, D/o Economic Affairs. Indian industry had a huge presence with 99 Indian companies attending amongst which 55 were represented at the top level. IBEF’s ‘Make in India’ lounge was a huge hit with a number of meetings taking place at the venue. CII also had strong representation at the meeting. On the sidelines of the WEF 2015, Hon’ble Finance Minister had bilateral meetings with Swiss Federal Councillor of Finance, Ms. Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and Federal Councillor of Economy, Mr. Johann Schneider-Ammann. Hon’ble Finance Minister also had bilateral meetings with Queen Maxima of Netherlands, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. John Key, US Secretary of Treasury and British Chancellor of Exchequer. He also had bilateral meeting with the Chiefs of several multi-national companies and banks. Mr. Piyush Goyal, MOS (I/C) for Power, Coal and NRE had bilateral meeting with Federal Councillor for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications, Ms. Doris Leuthard. The Indian delegation also attended an “India-Investment round table” facilitated by CII and attended by a large number of corporates and company representatives.
India has been participating regularly at annual trade exhibitions held in Basel and Geneva. India was the guest country at Geneva Festival in August 2011. In April 2012, India participated at the MUBA Fair in Basel as the guest country. The Swiss Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer was present at the inauguration of India Pavilion at MUBA 2012. In March 2015, India participated at MUBA Fair under the aegis of ITPO and in the BASELWORLD 2015 under the aegis of GJEPC respectively. The Swiss India business Forum in partnership with EPFL, Laussanne, held the Swiss-India Renewable Energy (SIREN) Symposium at EPFL, Laussanne on 19-20 Nov. 2015. Hon’ble Minister of Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy, Shri Piyush Goyal, addressed the participants through a video message.
Bilateral Institutional Arrangements
[i] Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) began in January 1996. Since then, eight rounds of consultations have been held alternately in Berne and New Delhi in February 2000, January 2003, September 2005, November, 2006, January, 2008, December, 2009 and December, 2012 respectively. The last FOC at Joint Secretary level was held in New Delhi on November 17/18, 2014.
[ii] Indo-Swiss Joint Economic Commission was set up in 1959 to intensify economic and commercial relations. The 13th session of JEC meeting was held in New Delhi from October 4-5, 2012. The 14th Session of JEC was held in New Delhi on 14 May, 2015, co-chaired by Mr. Dammu Ravi, Joint Secretary (FT-Europe), M/o Commerce & Industries from Indian side and Mrs. Livia Leu Agosti, Head of the Bilateral Economic Relations at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
[iii] Swiss-India Chamber of Commerce was set up in 1985 in Zurich. It regularly holds seminars, symposia and meetings to promote investments, trade and business in both the countries. In July 2009, SICC signed two separate MOUs with CII and FICCI. An Investment Round Table was organized by CII and SICC in Geneva in April 2013.
[iv] Indo-Swiss Joint Committee on S&T: 1st Meeting of the Indo-Swiss Joint Committee on S&T was held on 23 September, 2011 in Berne. The main objective of the meeting was to assess the ongoing S&T cooperation between India and Switzerland under the Indo-Swiss Joint Research Programme. On October 1, 2012, the Committee held discussions in New Delhi. The 3rd meeting of the joint Committee on S&T took place in Berne at Secretary level on 18 Sept. 2015.
[v] India-Switzerland Financial Dialogue: The MoU was signed on October 3, 2011 during the State Visit. The first Financial Dialogue was held in Berne on July 6, 2012. Indian delegation was led by Shri Gopalan, Secretary, DEA and the Swiss delegation was led by Amb. Michael Ambuhl. The second Financial Dialogue was held in New Delhi in June 2013.
[vi] An MoU on Mutual Cooperation in Local Governance: The MoU was signed between India and Switzerland on 12 December, 2011.
[vii] An MoU between Indian Ministry of Power and Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation was signed on 8 November, 2011 for cooperation in energy efficiency.
[viii] An MoU establishing the ‘Rabindranath Tagore Chair’ on Indian Studies was signed on October 4, 2011. Following the MOU, ICCR has been deputing a Hindi Professor for the Chair and the 4th session of the Chair for semester Jan-June was completed in 2015. The MOU is presently under revision.
[ix] Besides the above, India and Switzerland have signed Agreements on Promotion and Protection of Investments, Air Services, Collaboration in Biotechnology and Cooperation in Disaster Management.
[x] An MoU was signed in February 2012 between the Indian Council of Social Science Research and the University of Lausanne, for institutional cooperation.
Commercial Relations
Commercial contacts between India and Switzerland date back to the early 19th century when in 1851 the Volkart Trading Co. established its offices in Basel and Mumbai. It expanded its network, diversifying its activities in India, soon becoming the backbone of Switzerland’s economic presence in India. The Indo-Swiss Treaty of Friendship laid the foundation for a strong economic content to the bilateral relationship. Article 3 to 6 of this Treaty secured the “most favoured foreign nation treatment” to Switzerland. As provided by the Treaty itself, it has set the pace for further treaties like Double Taxation Treaty in November, 1994, followed by Amendment to protocol in 2010, Promotion and Protection of Investment Treaty in July 1997. The first major investment by Swiss companies in India came in mid-50s. Switzerland is an important trading partner for India outside the EU.
Bilateral Trade (In Million Swiss Francs) Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Jan- Nov. India’s Exports 800.1 1010.4 1303.4 1400 1524 1615.4 1171 India’s Imports 2156.1 2156.4 2986.4 2600 2010 1742.0 1608 Total Trade 2956.2 3166.8 4289.8 4000 3534 3357.4 2779
The Swiss-India bilateral trade nearly tripled from USD 1.6 billion in 2004 to USD 4.5 billion in 2011. Swiss exports to India has declined in recent years due to adverse currency rate movements and slowdown in the Indian economy. India’s merchandise exports have more than doubled from 2009 to 2014. India exported goods worth CHF 800.1 million in 2009 which grew to CHF 1615.4 in 2014. According to details by the Swiss Customs, bilateral Trade was at CHF 3357.4 million in 2014 (calendar year – January to December) showing a decline by 5% over 2013, with Swiss exports to India showing a decline by 13.3% to a total of CHF 1742 million in 2014 as against CHF 2010 million in 2013. However, India’s exports to Switzerland continued to grow by 6% in 2014 over the previous year (CHF 1615 million against CHF 1524 million in 2013). India’s export figures to Switzerland given by Swiss Customs does not include the figures of Indian Software and services exports. Similarly, Swiss export figures does not include bullion as well as war material exports to India. According to Electronic & Computer Software Export promotion Council, during 2013-14 India exported Computer Software and Services to Switzerland worth USD 201.11 million as compared to USD 369.86 in 2012-13 and USD 433.98 million in 2011-12. India’s export of Electronic Hardware was USD 34.90 in 2013-14 as compared to USD 56.57 million in 2012- 13. In 2014 Swiss exports of bullion was to the value of CHF 17.55 billion in 2014, as against CHF 21.9 billion in 2013.
The balance of trade has remained in fovour of Switzerland. The major items of Indian exports to Switzerland are textiles and garments, organic chemicals, precious stones and jewellery, dyestuffs, machinery and parts, leather products, shoes and shoe uppers, cotton, plastics, coffee, tea and hand-knotted carpets. Besides bullion, Swiss exports to India consist of pharmaceuticals, machinery, transport equipments, chemical products and watches.
From April 2000 to Sept. 2015, Switzerland invested as FDI approximately USD 3.18 billion in India, thus becoming the 11th largest investor and accounting for about 1.2% of total FDI in India during this period. As a large part of FDI in India, is routed through other countries, actual Swiss FDI in India is much higher, with overall Swiss investment inflows into India pegged at above USD 6.8 billion to 2013. More than 220 Swiss companies have a presence in India through their own subsidiaries and joint ventures. Most of the Swiss multinational companies like Nestle, ABB, Novartis, Roche UBS and Credit Suisse etc. have their operations in India. As per Swiss government data, Swiss enterprises have created over one lakh jobs in India. On the other hand, about 100 Indian companies invested USD 1.2 billion between 2012 and 2014 in Switzerland, placing it among the top five European investment destinations and top-ten places globally for Indian investors. Major Indian IT companies including TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, etc. have their offices here and provide services to major pharma companies, banks and insurance firms. Recently, Swiss luxury goods firm Lux was taken over by Eureka Forbes and earlier in 2010 M/s. Steiner, a construction company was taken over HCC Ltd. Indian companies in pharma and life science sector are also present.
At their meeting in Davos on 26 January 2008, Commerce/Trade Ministers from India and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA, which includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, agreed to launch negotiations on a comprehensive Trade and Investment Agreement as per the recommendations of the Joint EFTA-India Study Group established on 1 December 2006. 13 rounds of India-EFTA trade negotiations have been held, latest being in November, 2013 in New Delhi.
Cultural relations
The International Day of Yoga (IDY) was celebrated on 21 June, 2015 at Waisenhausplatz in the City Centre of Berne and in Culture Centre, Gasometer, Liechtenstein with participation of about 100 and 30 participants respectively. In other Swiss cities like Zurich, Berne and Baden, mass yoga practices were also held under the aegis of different Yoga schools where about 30-40 people participated in each place. At Berne event, Mrs. Von Sury-Thomas Susan, a PIO and Member of Legislative Assembly, Canton of Solothurn, participated.
A 10-member Kathak Dance troupe, led by Smt. Aruna Kelkar from Pune based “Niritya Bharti Academy” and sponsored by ICCR visited Switzerland between 24-26 March, 2015 and showcased its performances in Berne and Zurich). The shows were well received.
A performance and lecture-demonstration on Kathak was organised in Zurich on May 16 2014 by an ICCR sponsored 6-member Kathak troupe led by Ms Rujuta Soman to Switzerland.
Indian community
The Indian community in Switzerland comprises of approximately 18,000 Indians including over 6300 persons of Indian origin (Swiss passport holders). Most of them are professionals in Engineering, IT, pharmaceuticals and paramedical fields. Few are deployed in the International Organisations like UN, UPU and other prestigious Swiss institutes like Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich and EPFL, Lausanne. The Indian community is concentrated in Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Baden, Berne and Lausanne in that order. A number of Indian associations actively organise cultural activities and celebrate Indian national days. An Honorary Consul General of India is based in Zurich.
Useful Resources:
Embassy of India, Berne website: www.indembassybern.ch Information about Switzerland: https://www.news.admin.ch/ Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs: http://www.fdfa.ch/eda/en/home.html.html Swiss Embassy in New Delhi: http://www.eda.admin.ch/newdelhi
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January 2016