NEW DELHI: Swiss courts will supply the information sought by the Indian government in the Bofors case to Indian judicial authorities and not to the Indian govt, the Swiss Vice-President and Foreign Minister, Rene Felber, said on Tuesday.

Addressing newsmen, he said that the Bofors issue did not figure in his discussions with Indian leaders, the matter was pending in two courts in Switzerland which had sought some clarifications from India. Now that these clarifications had been received by the Swiss courts, the judges would take a decision which would be duly passed on to Indian judicial authorities, Felber stated. India has sought the names of the holders of the six accounts into which the Bofors kickback money is suspected to have been deposited. The accounts were subsequently frozen by the Swiss authorities.

Felber disclosed that several Swiss multinationals are planning new investment projects in India to take maximum benefit of the new economic politics. He said he did not have details at present, but he was aware that Brown Boveri will soon be signing an agreement with DESU for massive investment in improving electricity supply lines in Delhi.

He said that business houses in Europe were “happy and pleased” to see India’s economic reforms and emphasized that Switzerland was ready to help India to tide over the difficult adjustment period as soon as possible.

Some of measures being mooted in this regard were investments protection agreement for small and medium firms in Switzerland and India to get into joint ventures and partnerships and a treaty on double taxation.

 Fleber admitted that inter-Europe relations and affairs were the chief concern in Europe today particularly in view of the continuing violence in Yugoslavia which he described as “appalling” and the developments in East Europe and the Soviet Union.

 He, however, hastened to add that Swiss neutrality would continue to be the cornerstone of its relations with the rest of the world and Switzerland would not forget the developing world, Asked about Switzerland’s stand on the intellectual property rights agreement, Felber said that his govt supports a solution to the issue through GATT so that patent laws apply universally.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 18, 1991