India, Switzerland to further deepen their ties

New Delhi:  India and Switzerland today further deepened and renewed their ties for mutual development with the visiting Switzerland President Doris Leuthard having a wide ranging engagement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders held talks with business leaders of both countries at Hyderabad House here. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had called on President Leuthard and discussed wide-ranging issues of mutual interest. The Swiss President hailed friendship with India, saying it was based on shared values of democracy. The Switzerland President Doris Leuthard arrived here last night on a four-day visit. She was given a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan this morning and received by President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Modi. Switzerland is the 7th largest trading partner of India with the total bilateral trade including merchandise exports, bullion and IT services and software exports, amounting to US$ 18.2-billion in 2016-17. Bilateral trade has a share of 2.76% in India’s total global trade and has shown a mixed trend due to global economic slowdown, according to official sources. India has a share of only about 0.35 % of the Swiss import basket while Indian imports from Switzerland constitute about 4.5% of total Indian imports. Bilateral mercantile trade is about US$ 3-billion and is almost balanced. The imbalance mainly arises out of export of bullion and precious metals to India of about US$ 15-billion a year. Swiss exports to India have declined in recent years due to adverse currency rate movements and slowdown in Swiss economy. (UNI)