Black money not an issue anymore, says Swiss Ambassador Ralf Heckner

Switzerland ambassador to India Ralf Heckner on Monday said, in the last two years during his tenure Heckner has ‘almost heard nothing’ on black money.

“Black money is not an issue anymore. I have been a Swiss ambassador for more than two years and I almost heard nothing or hardly anything about black money. The black money issue has been dealt with by a bilateral treaty between Switzerland and India in 2018 on the automatic exchange of banking information between Switzerland and India (in both directions),” Swiss envoy Ralf Heckner said.

Swiss ambassador Heckner further said, “We had several batches of information exchanges between Switzerland and India. So the black money issue isn’t an issue anymore. There is not one cloud over the bilateral relations when it comes to our financial relations. On the contrary, I see a lot of convergence now because sustainability is very dear to the Honorable Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and the same applies to the Swiss government.”

Meanwhile, Swiss envoy Ralf Heckner also confirmed that this summer Swiss head of state will visit India and it will shift more towards sustainability.

“I am expecting the President of the Swiss Confederation (to visit India). We are expecting it in summer. We are in contact with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Government to make this happen,” the Swiss envoy further stated.

Moreover, Switzerland has also backed India’s G20 presidency and said, “I will work on getting this done in 2023 but I am not the only person that makes the trade deal happen. But as I said the state secretary of economic affairs will be in town at the beginning of February and that already shows interest from the Swiss side.”

However, in a very short period, two important partnership agreements have been signed with UAE and Australia in 2022.