A bilateral meeting between Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, India, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Minister of Health Switzerland, Alain Berset, was concluded on 20 May 2013 at Geneva. The meeting was held on the sidelines of World Health Assembly at Geneva. The aim of the meeting was to give further impetus to cooperation in the field of healthcare.
In the meeting, it was decided that an MoU between the two countries will be inked soon for broadening the scope of bilateral ties. The major areas of cooperation of that MoU will be:
• Non-Communicable Diseases including controlling the associated risk factors of tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, unhealthy diet, etc.
• Communicable Diseases and Anti- Microbial resistance
• Universal Health Coverage
• Maternal & Child health
• Sexual & Reproductive Health
• Health & Medical Research
• Therapeutic Products
• Electronic Medical Records
• Global Health Governance
In the meeting, it was exuded that Switzerland will extend full support to India on global platforms in order to carry forward the pursuits of providing high quality generic medicines at affordable prices.
Speaking on the occasion, Azad said that friendship between India and Switzerland goes as back as Independence of India, strongly rooted as it is in shared values of multi-culturalism, democracy and rule of law.
Recalling the historic ties between the two countries, Azad said that a treaty of friendship between India and Switzerland was signed at New Delhi as early as 1948, soon after India's independence.
Emphasizing the special nature of relationship between the two countries, Azad said that many high level visits have been exchanged in the recent past and that many bilateral institutional arrangements like Indo-Swiss Joint Commission, Swiss- India Chamber of Commerce, Indo-Swiss Joint Committee on Science and technology, etc. exist to further cement our strong relations.
Azad noted that in the continuum of strong Indo-Swiss bilateral cooperation, an MOU between the two countries will be inked soon to further broaden the scope of bilateral ties.
"Considerable progress has been made in this regard and an MOU in the field of health is being signed to promote bilateral cooperation between the two countries", Azad said.
