Andreas Aebi will be travelling to Vienna on 14 November. He will be meeting with the President of the Austrian National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, the following day. The official visit will centre on a working meeting between the two presidents and will be rounded off by a cultural programme. Andreas Aebi and Wolfgang Sobotka will exchange views on the bilateral relations between the two countries, and on neighbourly cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the strategic partnership between Switzerland and Austria, which was signed by Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis and the then Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg in Vienna last June, will also be discussed. This MoU is a non-binding instrument aimed at extending cooperation in certain areas – for instance to strengthen interest representation or mutual assistance in third countries. There will also be discussions on Switzerland's and Austria's relations with the European Union.
This meeting will build on the close bilateral exchange that has been established between the two parliaments in recent years, particularly in connection with the ongoing pandemic.