Berne, Oct 3 (ANI): Appreciating Switzerland's strong and unequivocal condemnation of terrorist attacks in India, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Monday said that the international community needs to work together to eliminate the forces of terrorism, which are inflicting wanton destruction across the globe at will.Addressing the Wandelhalle/Salle Des Pas Perdus Parliament Building, Berne, President Patil said: "International terrorism is one of the multilateral issues on which India and Switzerland share a common view. We appreciate the strong and unequivocal condemnation by Switzerland of terrorist attacks in India. The international community needs to work together to eliminate the forces of terrorism, which are inflicting wanton destruction across the globe at will. This is vital for peace and stability in the world."President Patil said that another global challenge facing humanity today, which requires an urgent, collective and coordinated global response is climate change.
" For a country like India, with one of the smallest carbon foot-prints in the world, the first and overriding priority is to alleviate poverty and to address our severe energy deficit. Half a billion people in India still do not have access to commercial energy," said President Patil.
"Despite our huge developmental challenges, we are doing everything possible, within our means and resources, to contribute to the global action on climate change through an ambitious National Action Plan on Climate Change. We have already declared our commitment to keep per capita emissions below the average per capita emissions of developed countries," she added.
Stating that both India and Switzerland have been actively and constructively collaborating on a wide range of issues, President Patil further said both nations elieve that the United Nations system needs to be reformed to make it more democratic and effective.
"India is convinced that this would require, among other things, the expansion of the UN Security Council. We strongly believe that India meets and satisfies all objective criteria for having a permanent seat in the expanded Security Council," said President Patil.
"We thank the Swiss Confederation for supporting our candidature for a non-permanent seat in the Council for 2011-12, and hope that it would be able to support India's aspirations to a permanent seat as well," she added.
Highlighting that Switzerland ranks amongst the leading countries in the world in harnessing renewable sources of energy, including both wind and hydro, President Patil said: "Renewable energy is clearly a sector where there is a great potential for bilateral cooperation. There is also scope for greater collaboration in biotechnology, where the two countries could focus on cutting edge areas, such as bio-electronics and bio-informatics, food processing, in which Switzerland has developed great expertise."
"India too has gained recognition from the world for its human resources that makes it an ideal Research and Development location. It has also emerged as a hub for high quality, cost-competitive manufacturing. These advantages offered by India, taken together with the innovative culture of Swiss enterprises, have created enormous synergies between our two economies which we should harness to benefit both our people," she added.
President Patil arrived in Switzerland on September 30 for a five-day state visit to enhance bilateral relations. She will stay in Switzerland till October 4 and then travel to Austria for a state visit from October 4 to 7.
The members of the delegation accompanying the President include Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla and Members of Parliament Vijay Jawaharlal Darda, Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav, and Dr. Chinta Mohan.
Senior officials including the Secretary to President Dr. Christy Fernandez and Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs, are also a part of the delegation, besides a number of business leaders and members of the media.
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