Norway–Switzerland relations are foreign relations between

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Norway has an embassy in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

and Switzerland has an embassy in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. Both countries are members of the

European Free Trade Association The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe, European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. ...

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

and the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

Work and education

In the 1800s, a number of Swiss workers migrated to Norway. Several were dairy experts who worked in the budding Norwegian dairy industry and passed on their expertise to others. They were known as ("Swiss"), later shortened to . Later, when the dairy industry became more industrialized, Swiss companies such as

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

invested in Norwegian factories. Nestlé's first acquisition outside of Switzerland was Kapp Melkefabrikk at Kapp in 1898, followed by Hamar Melkefabrikk in 1905 and other facilities. Before the United States became the world-leading scientific power, Norwegians were more inclined to undertake higher education in the German-speaking world, especially engineers. While most of the Germanophone universities and technical colleges they attended were located in Germany,

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

saw a large influx of Norwegian students. ETH has also kept records of every Norwegian graduate of the university since 1855.

Diplomatic relations

Switzerland opened a consulate in Oslo in 1847 (which was upgraded to a consulate general in 1921). Norway established a consulate general in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

in 1906. In 1918, the Norwegian ambassador in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

was accredited to

and the Swiss representative in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

was accredited to Oslo. The legations that were opened in Bern and Oslo after the Second World War were upgraded to the status of embassy in 1955 and 1957 respectively.Bilateral relations Switzerland–Norway
''Federal Department of Foreign Affairs''. Federal Administration admin.ch. Retrieved 13 October 2020. Bilateral relations between Switzerland and the Kingdom of Norway are described as "excellent". The volume of bilateral trade amounted to CHF 1.12 billion in 2019. Neither is a member of the European Union but both maintain close contact within the

. Before and after his tenure as Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs,

Børge Brende Børge Brende (born 25 September 1965) is a Norwegian politician and diplomat, and has been the president and CEO of the World Economic Forum since 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 201 ...

has been President of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

Culture

Norway and Switzerland are both prominent winter sport nations, especially sharing an appreciation for

Nordic skiing Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe to heel. Re ...

alpine skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel Ski binding, bindings, unlike other types of skiing (Cross-country skiing, cross-country, Telemark skiing, Telemark, or ski jumping) ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

and formerly speed skating in Davos. Norwegian organizations are members of several sporting bodies headquartered in Switzerland, including the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based in L ...

and

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

. In cultural matters, the countries cooperate within the Geneva-based

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

among others.

References

{{Bilateralrelations-stub

Work and education

Diplomatic relations

Culture

See also

References