Bilateral relations between Switzerland and Belarus

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Bilateral relations between Switzerland and Belarus

Ilya Zuyeu

Master of History Belarusian State University Minsk, Belarus



Abstract

The article deals with the Swiss-Belarusian bilateral relations in the political, economic, humanitarian and cultural area from 1991 until nowadays. It provides a brief overview of the studies on this topic published in both countries as well as official reports by the Federal Council, where Belarus was mentioned.

The article focuses on the former and current issues of intergovernmental relations between Switzerland and Belarus. It analyses the periods of deterioration caused by divergence of views on democracy and human rights, and the periods of improvement, when sanctions were lifted, the number of high-level visits increased, and new diplomatic and consular representations were established.

The article traces the dynamics and structure of foreign trade between the two countries and notes its rapid growth since the mid-2000s, which was facilitated by major Swiss investors, joint ventures and other entities as well as business forums.

It also gives data on the financial assistance and humanitarian aid that the Confederation has provided to Belarus, especially to the areas most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, within its programmes of cooperation with Eastern Europe and via the Swiss Cooperation Office in Minsk (now the Embassy of Switzerland in Belarus). The article also describes the activities of the Belarusian diaspora in Switzerland as well as the cooperation between the educational, scientific and cultural institutions of the two countries.

The author concludes that while Belarus is not one of Switzerland's priority partners, in recent years the bilateral relations between them have been gradually improving.

Keywords: Swiss Confederation, Republic of Belarus, visa and financial sanctions, foreign trade and investment, humanitarian aid, Chernobyl disaster, Swiss Cooperation Office.



Ілля Зуєв, магістр історії

Білоруський державний університет, Мінськ, Білорусь

ДВОСТОРОННІ ВІДНОСИНИ МІЖ ШВЕЙЦАРІЄЮ ТА БІЛОРУСІЄЮ

Анотація

У статті розглядаються швейцарсько-білоруські двосторонні відносини в політичній, економічній, гуманітарній та культурній сферах в період з 1991 року по теперішній час. У ній пропонується стислий огляд досліджень по цій темі, опублікованих в обох країнах, а також офіційних звітів Федеральної ради, в яких була згадана Білорусь.

Значна увага у статті приділяється минулим і сучасним проблемам відносин поміж урядами Швейцарії та Білорусі. У ній проаналізовані періоди погіршення, які були викликані розбіжністю поглядів на питання демократії і прав людини, і періоди поліпшення, коли знімалися санкції, збільшувалася кількість візитів на високому рівні і відкривалися нові дипломатичні та консульські представництва. political humanitarian belarusian

У статті простежується динаміка і структура зовнішньої торгівлі між двома країнами і відзначається її швидке зростання з середини 2000-х років, чому сприяли великі швейцарські інвестори, спільні підприємства та інші установи, а також бізнес-форуми.

У ній наводяться дані про фінансову та гуманітарну допомогу, яку Швейцарія надала Білорусі, особливо районам, які найбільше постраждали від Чорнобильської катастрофи, в рамках її програм співробітництва з країнами Східної Європи та через швейцарське Бюро співробітництва в Мінську (зараз Посольство Швейцарії в Білорусі). У статті також аналізується діяльність білоруської діаспори в Швейцарії і співробітництво між освітніми, науковими та культурними установами двох країн.

Автор робить висновок: незважаючи на те, що Білорусь не є одним із пріоритетних партнерів Швейцарії, в останні роки двосторонні відносини між ними поступово поліпшуються.

Ключові слова: Швейцарська Конфедерація, Республіка Білорусь, візові та фінансові санкції, зовнішня торгівля та інвестиції, гуманітарна допомога, Чорнобильська катастрофа, швейцарське Бюро співробітництва.



Introduction

After the end of the Cold War Switzerland intensified its policy towards the Eastern European countries, including those that, until 1991, had been part of the Soviet Union. Still, its relations with them have developed in a different way. Russia, which is an important global actor, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a nuclear power, has become one of the Confederation's strategic partners. Ukraine has been the second largest recipient (after Russia) of technical and financial aid provided by Switzerland in the post-Soviet area: the Confederation has supported political and economic reforms in this country and helped it to overcome the consequences of the armed conflict that had broken out in 2014.

Belarus, in turn, cannot be called one of Switzerland's priority partners: the leaderships of the two states differ in their ideas of democracy and human rights, andtheir political and economic relations have developed on an irregular basis. Nevertheless, in recent years the bilateral relations between the two countries have been gradually improving due to certain political liberalisation of Belarus, its greater economic openness and its stabilising role in the European region. Therefore, studying the Swiss-Belarusian relations is now becoming particularly relevant.



Literature review. Bilateral relations between Switzerland and Belarus go back to only 28 years, and therefore this topic has not yet been the subject of many studies. Among the Swiss authors who mentioned Belarus in their publications are Renй Schwok and Christophe Bonte who believed that Belarus, like other Central and Eastern European states, could use either the bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the European Union or the European Economic Area as a role model for developing its own relations with the European Union [25, p. 49]. Certain aspects of relations between the two countries have also been discussed in the coursebook by Alexander Sharapo on political systems and foreign policies of Germany, Austria and Switzerland [5, p. 210-215] and the article by Alexander Tikhomirov concerning the issues of the Swiss-Belarusian relations in 1991-2008 [4]. Recently, another Swiss scholar, Benno Zogg, published several works on Belarusian domestic and foreign policy. In a book chapter on Switzerland's relations with Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova - the three Eastern European countries between the NATO/EU and Russia - he noted that Belarus, though having a "neo-Soviet" political and economic system and being Russia's main ally, has much in common with Switzerland including relative political stability, flexibility and "situational neutrality" as well as acting as a mediator and bridge builder [36, p.41-47, 51].

The lack of much research on bilateral relations between Switzerland and Belarus is partially offset by official reports of the Swiss Federal Council on its foreign policy and on its cooperation with Eastern Europe. In 2004 the Swiss government linked the economic problems of Belarus with its dependence on energy supplies from Russia as well as ineffective reforms, and noted that since the Eastern enlargement of the European Union in May 2004 the Belarusian leadership has been torn between its efforts to adopt European standards and the need to maintain existing economic ties with Russia [16, p. 1920-1921]. The same conclusions were repeated in 2006 [17, p. 596]. In its 2010 report the Federal Council stressed that the main precondition for the improvement of Switzerland's bilateral relations with any country was its adherence to European values such as democracy and human rights, and therefore it declared its intention to maintain dialogue with Belarus on the abolition of the death penalty [8, p. 1057, 1287]. And in 2014 the Swiss government expressed its support for the conclusion of a free trade agreement between the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), on the one side, and Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, on the other [9, p. 1081].

Unlike existing publications on the Swiss-Belarusian relations mentioned above, the present article aims to discuss more detailed aspects of political, economic, humanitarian and cultural relations between the two countries and their development from 1991 until nowadays.

Political relations. On 25 August 1991 the Supreme Council of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic gave the Declaration of State Sovereignty the status of a constitutional law, and on 19 September it approved a new name - the Republic of Belarus - and new state symbols. Switzerland recognised the new independent European state on 23 December 1991, and on 10 February 1992 Belarus and Switzerland established diplomatic relations. Since then, the Swiss Ambassador in Poland has also been accredited in Minsk, and in January 1993 the Belarusian embassy headed by Anatoly Mardovich was opened in the municipality of Muri bei Bern [1].

In the 1990s Switzerland and Belarus aimed to establish contacts and develop interstate dialogue. Ivan Antanovich, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was the first Belarusian politician who officially visited Switzerland on 28 November 1997 [14]. Other Belarusian officials also participated in events that were organised in Switzerland. In particular, in January 1992 and in January 1993 Stanislav Shushkevich, the Chairman of the Supreme Council, spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and in June 1998 Alexander Lukashenko, the President, took part in the Crans-Montana Forum. In mid-1998 the Belarusian leader was also scheduled to meet Flavio Cotti, his Swiss counterpart, but this visit never took place due to political misunderstandings.

In general, the Swiss-Belarusian relations in the second half of the 1990s and early 2000s stayed rather cool. The Confederation condemned political transformations that took place in Belarus at that time - these included the May 1995 referendum, which strengthened the presidential powers, the November 1996 referendum, which adopted the new Constitution, the subsequent dissolution of the Supreme Council and the diplomatic conflict in Drozdy in 1998, when twenty-two ambassadors were evicted from their residential compound northwest of Minsk. In response to that, Switzerland suspended financial aid to Belarus. However, it did not support the travel ban imposed by other European states against the Belarusian leadership in 2002 and did not interrupt ministerial and inter-parliamentary dialogue. In 2001 Walter Fust, the Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and

Cooperation, visited Belarus, and in 2003 Alexander Lukashenko took part in the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva.

The Swiss-Belarusian relations deteriorated in 2006. The Confederation condemned the results of the October 2004 referendum, which gave the Belarusian President the right to be re-elected an unlimited number of times, and the suppression of mass demonstrations in March 2006. In response to that, on 29 June of the same year the Federal Council imposed sanctions against the Belarusian leadership [35]. The funds and economic resources of the President of Belarus and other politicians as well as members of electoral commissions and judges were frozen. Moreover, these persons (their number totalled 41 at the end of 2006) were banned from entering the territory of the Confederation [24].

In 2008 the bilateral relations between Switzerland and Belarus improved. On 11 February the Office of the Swiss Embassy in Poland, which began its work in July 2007 under the leadership of Dietrich Dreyer, was officially opened in Minsk [13]. In November 2008, noting the improvement of the political situation during the parliamentary elections and the release of political prisoners as well as a similar decision of the Council of the European Union taken a month earlier, the Swiss Federal Council lifted travel restrictions from most Belarusian politicians. Still, the financial sanctions against these persons remained in force.

Removal of visa sanctions allowed to organise a series of high-level visits. On 5 February 2010 Micheline Calmy-Rey, the Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, met Sergei Martynov, her Belarusian counterpart, at the Munich Security Conference, where they discussed the work of the Council of Europe Information Point in Minsk as well as bilateral issues such as the abolition of the death penalty, freedom of the media and the guarantee of political liberties for the opposition [27, p. 3]. At that time Alexander Lukashenko also had a number of informal meetings with representatives of Swiss business and political communities. On 25 February 2010 Micheline Calmy-Rey met Alexander Lukashenko in Kiev, where she expressed her hope for a rapprochement of Belarus with the Council of Europe, but noted that this is possible only if it respects the fundamental values of this organisation such as free and fair elections, the abolition of the death penalty, freedom of assembly and freedom of the media [18]. In addition, on 17 March 2010 the honorary consulate of Belarus was opened in Zurich.

The presidential elections of 19 December 2010, the suppression of mass demonstrations and the following repressions were again criticised by Switzerland. On 22 February 2011 the Federal Council renewed and expanded financial and travel sanctions against the Belarusian leadership, politicians, members of electoral commissions, judges, security personnel, journalists, businesspeople and other persons responsible for the situation in the country [34]. Subsequently, these lists were repeatedly revised: in April 2012 they included 243 persons and 32 organisations, and from the end of 2013 they began to gradually decline. After the release of political prisoners in August 2015, Switzerland, like the European Union, lifted most of the sanctions in February 2016. The only persons not delisted were the four individuals suspected of involvement in the unresolved disappearances of opposition politicians Yury Zakharenko and Viktor Gonchar, businessman Anatoly Krasovsky and journalist Dmitry Zavadsky in 1999-2000 [26].

In 2017 the Swiss-Belarusian dialogue intensified again. The Switzerland- Belarus friendship groups were created in the parliaments of both states, and on 28 February 2018 the Belarusian delegation headed by Vladimir Andreichenko, the Chairman of the House of Representatives, made a historic visit to Switzerland. The delegates conducted negotiations with the members of the Swiss parliament as well as Ignazio Cassis, the Head of Switzerland's FDFA [14]. On 19-21 June of the same year Evgeny Shestakov, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, met Krystyna Marty Lang, FDFA Deputy State Secretary, in Bern. And on 25-28 September 2018 the delegation headed by Mikhail Orda, the Speaker of the Council of the Republic, and Vsevolod Yanchevsky, the Director of Hi-Tech Park Belarus, visited Switzerland [2]. During that visit, the second honorary consulate of Belarus was opened in Lausanne on 27 September 2018.

Vladimir Makei, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, made an official visit to Switzerland on 8-9 April 2019 - in particular, he spoke at the opening of the Belarusian-Swiss business forum "Doing Business in Belarus" [23]. Alexander Turchin, the First Deputy Prime Minister, met Guy Parmelin, the Head of the Federal Department of Economics, Education and Science, as well as members of the Swiss parliament on 4-9 June 2019 in Bern, and on 9 July in Lausanne and 23 August in Minsk he conducted negotiations with Swiss businesspeople [3]. Oleg Kravchenko, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, discussed the issues of European security and human rights with Krystyna Marty Lang on 5-6 September and on 12 December 2019 [19], and in September-October 2019 the representatives of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held consultations with their Swiss colleagues on cooperation in the area of migration and consular services. Furthermore, the third honorary consulate of Belarus was opened in Pratteln on 20 November 2019.

On 15 May 2019 the Federal Council, noting the steadily growing bilateral relations with Belarus and seeing great promise in its economic potential as well as its mediation efforts during the Ukrainian conflict, decided to upgrade the Swiss diplomatic mission in Minsk to a full embassy. At the same time, the Swiss government stressed its intention to increase its commitment to the issues of human rights in Belarus. On 12 July Claude Altermatt, now Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, conducted negotiations with Vladimir Makei, the Belarusian Foreign Minister [22], and on 12 September 2019 he presented his Credentials to the Belarusian Head of State [6]. The official opening of the Swiss Embassy in Minsk took place on 13 February 2020 during the visit of Ignazio Cassis, who had negotiations with Vladimir Makei and Alexander Lukashenko [10]. In addition, the Switzerland-Belarus friendship association was founded in January 2020, which included members of Swiss humanitarian organisations, businesspeople, government officials and the public.

All in all, in the 1990-2000s political dialogue between the governments of Switzerland and Belarus was rather unstable, while it remained consistent and uninterrupted at the ministerial and inter-parliamentary level. Therefore, despite the fact that existing disagreements over democracy and human rights have not been resolved, in recent years the scope of the Swiss-Belarusian relations has increased, which was reflected in a series of meetings between the officials and the broadening of diplomatic contacts.

Economic cooperation. Despite the lack of mutual understanding on certain political issues, cooperation between Switzerland and Belarus in the economic area continued to develop, although not very actively. Belarus ranks only 83rd (or 4th among the post-Soviet countries) in the list of the Confederation's foreign trade partners, while Switzerland is the 22nd trading partner of Belarus [21]. The volume of Belarusian exports to Switzerland in 2019 amounted to CHF 33.6 m, and the volume of imports from Switzerland to Belarus amounted to CHF 134.7 m [29]. In general, during the period of 1992-2019 trade between the two countries increased, but this growth was not constant (see Chart 1). For example, in the mid-1990s the volume of Belarusian exports to the Confederation (CHF 20.5 m in 1997) was significantly higher than in subsequent periods and was surpassed only from 2016 onwards (CHF 31.3 m).



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? Exports from Belarus ? Imports from Switzerland

Chart 1. Volume of trade between Switzerland and Belarus, CHF million [29]

In 2019 Belarusian exports to Switzerland included vehicle parts, furniture, fresh and frozen vegetables, fruits and nuts, electrical transformers and other industrial goods, aluminium bars and iron nails. At the same time, the Confederation supplied locomotive and other vehicle parts, packaged medicaments, blood, chemicals, electrical transformers and other equipment, insulated wire, centrifuges, metal finishing machines, aluminium bars and flat-rolled iron to Belarus [32].

Belarus and Switzerland have concluded several agreements in the field of economics and finance: on trade and economic cooperation (1993), on the promotion and mutual protection of investments (1993), on the avoidance of double taxation in the field of taxes on income and on wealth (1999), on air (1994) and road transport (2000) [33].

Belarus attracts major Swiss investors. In March 2010 Franck Muller acquired majority ownership of the previously nationalised Minsk Watch Factory, promising to supply it with new equipment and build a new facility. It is worth saying, however, that since that time the production volumes have only decreased, the new equipment has not been acquired, and Vartan Sirmakes, the Chief Executive Officer, later abandoned the idea of building the so-called "Watch Village" - the new production facility in Shchomyslitsa, southwest of Minsk.

In January 2011 Stadler Rail, another major Swiss investor, delivered its electric trains to Belarus (the first of the post-Soviet countries) and in 2013 built the Stadler Minsk plant in Fanipol, Minsk Region. This plant subsequently became the main recipient of Swiss investments into the Belarusian economy and one of the largest producers of single- and double-decker trains, trams and underground trains exported to Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and other countries.

A total of 118 Swiss-based enterprises are registered in Belarus, and the volume of Swiss investments in the Belarusian economy in 2018 amounted to almost CHF 83 m [30].

Cooperation between the two countries is facilitated by the Joint Chamber of Commerce "Switzerland-CIS/Georgia" (JCC), which since 1999 has helped companies to establish relations with each other, provided them with relevant information and conducted business events. One of such events was the Belarusian- Swiss business forum "Doing Business in Belarus: Opportunities for Swiss companies", which was held on 8-9 April 2019 in Chвteau du Grand Malagny in a suburb of Geneva. Several documents have been signed at the forum, including the memorandums of cooperation between the Joint Chamber of Commerce and two Belarusian departments: the National Agency of Investment and Privatisation [12] and the National Centre for Marketing of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs [31]. A number of meetings between politicians and businesspeople of the two countries also took place during the forum.

In addition, in June 2013 the Belarusian-Swiss Business Council was created, which included organisations from both countries interested in strengthening bilateral contacts. It is important to note that the major Swiss investors were the main supporters of these associations. Peter Spuhler, the President of Stadler Rail, was the main initiator of the Belarusian-Swiss Business Council, and Franck Muller provided a platform for holding the Belarusian-Swiss business forum.

The creation of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in 2015 was meant to increase the attractiveness of Belarus for Switzerland, while it has become part of an extensive market on a continental scale. However, there are still numerous restrictions even in mutual trade between EAEU member countries. Economic sanctions against Russia also affect other member countries of the EAEU, including Belarus, and negotiations on a free trade agreement between the European Free Trade Association and the EAEU have been frozen due to Russia's position on the conflict in Ukraine [11, p. 2-3]. Nevertheless, the Swiss government sees encouraging opportunities in cooperation with Belarus, although it does not overestimate its prospects in the short term.

All in all, while neither of the two countries is each other's most important economic partner, the volume of mutual trade, which had declined in the late 1990s, has recovered and surpassed all previous records. The total trade between the two countries in 2014 was 4.3 times higher than in 1997, while Belarusian exports to Switzerland in 2016 were 3.5 times higher than in 2015 and 1.5 times higher than in 1997. This growth is largely due to the involvement of major Swiss investors and the operation of joint ventures in Belarus.

Humanitarian and cultural cooperation. Like other post-socialist countries, Belarus was part of Swiss programmes of cooperation with Eastern Europe. In 19931999 it received CHF 22.7 m of financial assistance and CHF 20 m of loan guarantees [7]. However, since 2000 Belarus has been excluded from these programmes in accordance with the principle of political conditionality - in particular, due to the use of the death penalty and other violations of human rights.

After that, Switzerland continued to support Belarus through other sources. In January 2001 Walter Fust, the Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, opened a cooperation office in Minsk. Subsequently, Walter Fust and his colleagues repeatedly met the Minister of Emergency Situations and other Belarusian politicians. The governments of the two states also concluded an agreement on cooperation in the event of natural disasters, crises or major accidents (2004) and an agreement on the conditions for the recreation of minor citizens of the Republic of Belarus in the Swiss Confederation (2010) [33].

At that time the volume of Swiss humanitarian aid delivered to Belarus has greatly increased. While in in 1994-2000 it amounted to CHF 1.5 m, in 2001-2010 it reached CHF 25 m [13]. Its significant part was distributed in the Gomel and Mogilev Regions, which had been most affected by the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. In particular, under the Mother and Child Health Project hospitals in the Slavgorod, Cherikov and Krasnopolsky districts of the Mogilev Region received modern medical equipment, and their staff, as well as local residents, took part in training seminars in the area of perinatology, ultrasound diagnostics and disease prevention. This and other projects helped to improve the living conditions of people in the Belarusian areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster, significantly reduce child mortality, modernise healthcare, social welfare and emergency protection systems, and strengthen civil society. In May 2010, in view of the successful development of Belarus in the humanitarian area and the lack of need for the prior amount of assistance, Switzerland transferred all joint projects under the control of local partner organisations.

The Swiss diaspora in Belarus is rather small - in 2018 it included only 30 people [28]. A lot more Belarusians - almost 1.2 thousand - reside in Switzerland [20]. In March 2012 around 250 people living in the canton of Zurich created their own public organisation - the Belarusian Association in Switzerland - which helps to integrate Belarusians in the Confederation, preserve their national identity and 2020 facilitate inter-cultural dialogue as well as scientific, social and humanitarian relations between the two countries.

Thanks to the activities of the Association, in July 2017 the ashes of Princess Maria Madeleine Radziwill, the Belarusian patron of arts who lived in Fribourg from 1932 to 1945, were transferred to her motherland, and in October 2017 a monument to Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the participant of the American War of Independence and the leader of the uprising against the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia of 1794, was opened in Solothurn. The Belarusians in Switzerland keep in touch with the Belarusian embassy, they annually celebrate the Day of the Belarusian written language, Dziady, Kupalle and other traditional feasts and holidays. In addition, exhibitions of Belarusian artists, concerts of Belarusian performers and other events are regularly organised in the Confederation.

Certain educational and cultural institutions of Switzerland and Belarus have also established contacts between each other. In November 2013 Renй Schwok, a professor from the University of Geneva, visited the Faculty of International Relations of the Belarusian State University, making a presentation on the topic "Switzerland's foreign policy: more original than usually thought". In December 2017 the faculty hosted a meeting with Claude Altermatt, the Head of the Swiss diplomatic mission in Minsk. And on 12 February 2019 the Haute Йcole Arc and the International University "MITSO" signed an agreement on cooperation.

In addition, in November 2018 Roman Motulsky, the Director of the National Library of Belarus, presented the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures of the University of Geneva with a facsimile edition of the world's first book called Primer (Bukvar), which had been published in 1618 in the printing house of the Vilna Holy Spirit Orthodox Brotherhood in Jewie (now Vievis, Lithuania) as well as a collection of books on Belarusian philology, literature and history. During another visit, which took place in June 2019, Roman Motulsky presented the Slavic Library of the University of Zurich and the Swiss Gutenberg Museum of Graphic Arts and Communication in Fribourg with 20-volume facsimile reprints of Francysk Skaryna's Book Heritage (1517-1519), marking the 500th anniversary of Belarusian book printing.

All in all, throughout the 1990s Switzerland has financially supported postsocialist transformation in Belarus. This assistance, however, was discontinued in accordance with the principle of political conditionality and other disagreements. Nevertheless, in 2001 Switzerland opened a cooperation office in Minsk and extended its humanitarian aid to Belarusian areas most affected by the Chernobyl disaster. In addition, Switzerland and Belarus are brought together by the activities of the diaspora as well as cooperation between educational, scientific and cultural institutions.



Conclusion

Although Belarus cannot be called one of Switzerland's priority partners, the Confederation maintains constructive political dialogue with it. Its dynamics was rather unstable: Switzerland condemned violence and repressions that accompanied the elections and referendums in Belarus, and imposed visa and financial sanctions against the Belarusian leadership, which led to deterioration of relations. However, ministerial and inter-parliamentary dialogue was never interrupted, and high-level political contacts resumed at the first signs of improvements. These facts have shown that adherence to democracy and human rights in Belarus, especially the abolition of the death penalty, can be the main key to further improving its relations with Switzerland.

The dynamics of foreign trade between Switzerland and Belarus was irregular, but since the mid-2000s there has been a noticeable increase. The Confederation has become an important economic partner of Belarus and one of the main investors in its economy, due to opening of joint ventures, the activities of the Joint Chamber of Commerce "Switzerland-CIS/Georgia" and the Belarusian-Swiss Business Council as well as business forums.

Switzerland has included Belarus, along with other post-socialist countries, in its cooperation programmes with Eastern Europe, under which Belarus received financial assistance and loan guarantees. While since 2000 it has been excluded from these programmes due to violations of human rights, the Confederation strengthened cooperation with Belarus in the humanitarian area, helping the Gomel and Mogilev Regions to overcome the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. In order to coordinate the provision of humanitarian aid, in 2001 the Swiss cooperation office was opened in Minsk. In 2007 it was transformed into the Office of the Swiss Embassy in Poland, and in 2019 it was upgraded to an embassy. Moreover, Switzerland and Belarus cooperate in the area of people's diplomacy, education and culture.



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