Dear colleagues, dear friends,
Dear Mr. Ambassador,

It is for me a great pleasure and a great honor to express the sentiments of friendship of the Swiss Parliament to our colleagues of the consultative council of Saudi Arabia. Your assembly was established by a decision of the King 12 years ago and its role has developed in such a way that the Inter-Parliamentary Union decided to admit it last year as a Parliament in its own right. You have the opportunity to give wise advice to the King on many issues of importance such as budget, defence, foreign and social affairs.

The visit that the foreign minister, Prince Saud al Faisal, paid to Switzerland last month was of the utmost interest. The President of the National Council and I were very interested by what His Excellency had to say about the national dialogue, about the place of women in the society and about the clear vision that this statesman of great experience presented about the future of the Middle-East, vision which we share to a large extent.

These visits show how necessary it is to establish better understanding by means of dialogue between people belonging to different civilizations and religions. With the city of Mecca, birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad containing the Great Mosque, within which is the Kaaba, the sacred shrine of the Muslim religion, your country exercises a great fascination on all mankind and also on the Swiss people.

The reforms that are underway in your country are courageous steps in order to adapt it to a changing world. We wish full success to these reforms. As your colleague, Mr. Ihsan Ali Bu-Hulaiga wrote recently in Le Monde: “the people and the government want reforms. There is no time to lose”. That could also apply to Switzerland who sometimes seems to be a bit sleepy in its way of dealing with the current issues!

Both countries are old countries. Although Saudi Arabia got its name in September 1932 after being called Kingdom of the Hejaz and of Nejd, it must me remembered that Nejd was an independent state in the 18th Century and Switzerland has existed since the 13th Century as the imposing monument of the three Confederates in the Parliament buildings reminds us. Our Austrians were your Turks! But nowadays there is only one foreign power whose government tends to think that its recipes are valid for the entire world. This is not our way of thinking and we believe that free independent states in full respect of their sovereignty can contribute to a peaceful world.

I raise my glass in honor of His Majesty the King of Saudi Arabia, custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and to the delegation of the Majilis Al-Shoura.

Long live the friendship between your Kingdom and our Confederation!