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Conformément aux efforts déployés depuis longtemps par la Suisse en faveur d'une solution politique au conflit au Proche-Orient, le conseiller fédéral Ignazio Cassis a participé à New York à la conférence sur la solution à deux États. Cette conférence est une reprise de la réunion de haut-niveau tenue au mois de juillet dans le cadre de l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU sur le même sujet. En outre, la Suisse s’est jointe à une déclaration commune de plusieurs Etats pour demander à Israël de lever les restrictions sur les médicaments et les équipements médicaux, et de rouvrir le corridor d’évacuation médicale de Gaza vers la Cisjordanie, y compris Jérusalem-Est.

Martina Hirayama, State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation, will be in Pretoria and Cape Town on a science mission from 25 to 26 September. The aim of the trip is to strengthen long-term cooperation between Switzerland and South Africa in the fields of education, research and innovation. The science mission follows a G20 meeting on science and innovation, which State Secretary Hirayama will attend.

A new preliminary report (aviation) is available on the website of the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board STSB.

Schaffhausen is becoming a region for sustainability robotics applications: Thanks to a new partnership between Empa and the canton of Schaffhausen, drones and intelligent machines will be tested and further developed here under real-life conditions – bridging the gap between research and industry and benefiting the environment.

Switzerland had 1.8 million residential buildings and 4.84 million dwellings in 2024. 35% of buildings were heated by oil and 17% by gas. Just over a quarter of single-family houses (28%) and a fifth of households (20%) were equipped with a heat pump. These are some of the results from the Buildings and Dwellings Statistics compiled by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

Address by Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) – Check against delivery

Speech by Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis at an event organised by the Camera di Commercio Cantone Ticino, Economiesuisse and the Swiss Association for Foreign Policy on the Swiss-EU package in Bellinzona - Check against delivery

Switzerland is committed to supporting Ukraine’s economic recovery over the long term. The Federal Council therefore approved funding of CHF 30 million for the ‘Competitiveness for Recovery Ukraine 2026–2030’ programme at its meeting on 19 September.

Address by Federal Councillor Martin Pfister, head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport DDPS, at the anniversary celebration of the Geneva Centres, Geneva, Thursday, 18 September 2025.

From 14 to 21 September 2025, a delegation of 12 Sri Lankan lawmakers and high-level political decision-makers, including members of the government and the opposition, is visiting Switzerland at the invitation of the FDFA. The trip was jointly organised by the Peace and Human Rights Division (PHRD) and the Swiss embassy in Colombo, and focuses on federalism, democracy and reconciliation.

The ETH Board has appointed Professor Eftychia Vayena to be a member of the Executive Board of ETH Zurich. In relation to the organisational development project “FIT for the Future”, it also took note of an alternative proposal from the research institutes, which it has asked them to develop further. The ETH Board is expected to decide at the end of the year which option or options it wishes to include in the consultation within the ETH Domain.

At its meeting of 17/18 September 2025 and upon application of the President of ETH Zurich, Professor Joël Mesot, and the President of EPFL, Professor Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, the ETH Board appointed a total of ten women and nine men as professors and awarded the title of professor to one individual and the title of Professor of Practice to one individual. It also took note of the resignation of two professors and thanked them for their services. In the last 12 months, the ETH Board has made a total of 25 new appointments for women and 22 for men; the proportion of women among these new appointments thus amounts to 53%.