Minister of Foreign Affairs L.Purevsuren paid a working visit to the Swiss Confederation on November 26, 2015. During the visit, Minister L.Purevsuren held talks with Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Mr. Didier Burkhalter and exchanged views on bilateral ties as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest. Minister L.Purevsuren expressed his satisfaction with the development of the relations between Mongolia and the Swiss Confederation, especially in politics, development cooperation, culture and humanitarian sectors. He also mentioned that Mongolia attaches great importance to its ties with Switzerland and further underlined his interest to deepen political talks in all aspects, continue the successfully developing collaboration in the field of development assistance and broaden the bilateral relations in areas such as economy, trade, investment, tourism, agriculture and education.

In relation to the Mongolian President’s announcement on Mongolia’s permanent neutrality during the 70^th Session of the UN General Assembly, a bilateral consultation meeting to share and exchange views on Switzerland’s neutrality was held on November 16-17, 2015 in Bern. Minister L.Purevsuren expressed his gratitude for successfully organising this meeting and interest to cooperate in this field. He also affirmed his desire to deepen the bilateral cooperation within the framework of the UN as well as other international organisations and expressed his gratitude to the Swiss side for supporting Mongolia’s candidacy to the UN Human Rights Council Council for the term 2016-2018, the election was held during the 70^th Session of the UN General Assembly.

Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Burkhalter expressed his satisfaction with the developing relations and cooperation between Mongolia and Switzerland and underlined the opportunities for broadening ties in various sectors. He also congratulated Mongolia’s success in strengthening democracy and particularly on its 25^th anniversary of the first democratic election. Burkhalter further expressed his support for Mongolia’s initiative on permanent neutrality.

During the visit, Foreign Minister L.Purevsuren held a meeting with Mr. Manuel Sager, Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. In the meeting, Foreign Minister L.Purevsuren noted the valuable Swiss development assistance given to Mongolia, in accordance with the Government’s priority goal of ensuring the sustainable development of the country. He also expressed appreciation from the Government and people of Mongolia for the successful implementation of projects in decentralization, developing good governance, ensuring safety of food and agricultural goods and in improving vocational training systems in rural areas. There is continued need and demand for development assistance from Switzerland. While continuing the successful projects being implemented now, the Foreign Minister expressed his willingness to work towards studying the possibility of developing an effective and sustainable long-term cooperative mechanism in areas including agriculture, food production, tourism and others, which are important for Mongolia to diversify its economy and ensure sustainable development. Mr. Manuel Sager, Director General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, expressed his content on the successful and effective implementation of the development projects in agriculture, food safety, good governance, vocational education and other areas. He also expressed his readiness to share the development experiences of Switzerland with Mongolia for the required areas in the field of development assistance.

Within the framework of his visit, Foreign Minister L.Purevsuren attended the 24^th Session of the Council of Member States of the International IDEA and annual Democracy Forum and officially received the chairmanship of the International IDEA’s Council of Member States for the year 2016, from the Swiss Confederation, the previous chair in 2015. The chairmanship was handed down by Swiss Foreign Minister Mr.D.Burkhalter. In his opening statement for the Democracy forum, Foreign Minister L.Purevsuren introduced the measures to be taken by Mongolia during its chairmanship of the international IDEA.