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60
& going strong
On 14 August 1948, India, then a
year-old fledgling democracy, signed
a Friendship Treaty with Switzerland,
a small country tucked away in the
snowy Alps of Europe. The Treaty,
signed in New Delhi by India's first
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
and Switzerland's Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary Armin
Daeniker, has stood the test of
time.
“You will be glad to know
that the Government of India have
agreed to enter into a treaty of
friendship with the ancient republic
of Switzerland. This is the first
treaty of this kind,” Prime
Minister Nehru wrote to the Chief
Ministers in a fortnightly letter.
So, the treaty is the first of its
kind, born out of the vision and
efforts of no less a global statesman
than Pandit Nehru. However, it has
not been consigned to history like
many such documents. In fact, the
Treaty has flourished like a banyan
tree providing shade and rest to
wayfarers. Founded on the noble
principles of liberty and democracy,
the Treaty has been nourished and
nurtured by commerce. It has enabled
Switzerland to share its industrial
advancement with India, which, in
turn, has offered the former a huge
and growing market for its products,
from machinery to medicines and
milk. The most important aspect
this Treaty has been its dynamic
character. It has responded to the
need of the hour. When India liberated
its economy from Socialist shackles
in the early 1990s, the Treaty found
its much-needed nourishment. In
the last two decades, bilateral
trade between India, now a fast-growing
economy and Switzerland, a stable
and developed nation, has expanded
by leaps and bounds. It has almost
doubled in the last five years to
touch three billion Swiss francs.
Today, more than 150 Swiss companies,
some of them large multinationals,
are operating in India. Scores of
small and medium sized Swiss firms
are now looking at the flourishing
Indian market, bolstered by the
purchasing power of a 300-million
strong middle-class. There has been
a two-way flow of investment. Switzerland
is a favoured destination for Indian
tourists with deep pockets. Bollywood's
lovelorn heroes and heroines find
the lovely Swiss locales idyllic
for singing and dancing. Today India
and Switzerland are closer than
ever before, their bonds growing
stronger with years. In the Indian
social and religious context, the
attainment of 60 years is regarded
as a sacred landmark in a man's
life and is celebrated with philosophical
detachment as it opens doors to
a higher spiritual realm. At 60,
the Friendship Treaty has flung
open the doors to vast, and yet
untapped vistas of opportunity for
both India and Switzerland.
-Dev |
