The president of the National Council, Dominique de Buman, responding to the invitation extended to him by his Armenian counterpart, Mr Ara Babloyan, travelled to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, for an official visit on 3 February. During the four-day visit, Mr de Buman met members of the presidential college of the Armenian National Assembly and representatives from the country’s various political groupings. Mr de Buman also spoke before the National Assembly and laid a wreath at the Armenian Genocide Memorial and Museum.
Mr de Buman, who was accompanied by a parliamentary delegation, also had the opportunity to meet Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, and Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan. During these meetings, Mr de Buman and his various discussion partners welcomed the intensification of economic relations between Switzerland and Armenia. Switzerland is among the top ten foreign trading partners and investors in Armenia. Mr de Buman therefore took the opportunity to attend an economic forum organised by the Development Foundation of Armenia along with a Swiss business delegation. He also visited a number of businesses and attended the opening of a salt factory that had been set up using Swiss technology. In addition, Mr de Buman spoke with Armenian and Swiss entrepreneurs.
Development cooperation was also an important topic during the visit. As part of its 2017-2020 cooperation strategy for the South Caucasus, Switzerland supports sustainable economic development, the strengthening of democratic institutions and the promotion of dialogue in the region. In Armenia it is active in the field of agriculture and the process of decentralisation. To that end the delegation made a field visit to the region of Vayotz Dzor where the delegation visited a dairy cooperative. The project illustrated how small subsistence farms are integrated into the agricultural production process.
The delegation also recognised the wide range of cultural exchanges between the two countries by visiting the vast artistic installation created by Swiss artist Felice Varini at Yerevan’s main railway station. Furthermore, the delegation was received by His Holiness Catholicos Karekin II at the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The delegation travelling with the president of the National Council consisted of National Council member and first vice president Marina Carobbio Guscetti (SP/TI), National Council member and second vice president Isabelle Moret (FDP/VD), National Council members Sibel Arslan (Green Party/BS), Tiana Angelina Moser (GL/ZH), Rosmarie Quadranti (BDP/ZH), Marianne Streiff-Feller (CVP/BE) and Adrian Amstutz (SVP/BE), as well as Philippe Schwab, Secretary General of the Federal assembly, Cédric Stucky, Dep. Head of International Affairs & Multilingualism, and Sarkis Shahinian, an expert on Armenian affairs.