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On 19 October 2026, Mr Cassis received the Colombian foreign minister, Omar Bula, for a working meeting in Bern. Discussions focused on bilateral relations, Swiss support to Colombia following the earthquake in August 2026, as well as peace and security in the country and wider region. Prior to this, Mr Bula met with Ms Baume-Schneider to sign a bilateral social security agreement and discuss cultural cooperation between the two countries.

In solids, different types of excitations can affect each other. Using a new experimental technique at the X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL, a team at Paul Scherrer Institute PSI has now been able to uncover the interplay between electronic, magnetic, and lattice excitations. This understanding is important for learning how spin excitations can be controlled for future information technology. The results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

On 19 October 2026, the Taskforce Drones will host the first edition of the Swiss Drone Security Forum 2026. The event will take place at the Thun military training area and will bring together more than 300 stakeholders from Swiss research, the armed forces, the administration, authorities, politics and industry. The aim of the joint exchange during the Security Forum will be to strengthen Switzerland’s drone ecosystem.

During his official visit to Hanoi on Saturday, 17 October, President Guy Parmelin was welcomed by President Tô Lâm and Prime Minister Lê Minh Hưng. The discussions focused particularly on bilateral relations between Switzerland and Vietnam, with agreements reached in several policy areas. On Sunday, 18 October, the free trade agreement between the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states and Vietnam will also be signed.

Le conseiller fédéral Ignazio Cassis s’est rendu le 16 octobre 2026 à Tbilissi, où il a rencontré la ministre géorgienne des affaires étrangères Maka Botchorishvili et le Premier ministre Irakli Kobakhidze. Au cœur des échanges : la sécurité régionale, les efforts pour surmonter les conséquences de la guerre de 2008 et le rôle de l’OSCE, que la Suisse préside cette année. Les discussions ont également porté sur les mandats de puissance protectrice exercés par la Suisse et les perspectives de renforcement des relations bilatérales.

The Federal Tax Administration has published FATCA group requests pursuant to Article 12 paragraph 1 FATCA Act and final decrees pursuant to Article 5 paragraph 3 letter b of the FATCA Agreement.

On Friday 16 October 2026 in Bern, FDFA State Secretary Alexandre Fasel received Stewart Wood, Lord Wood of Anfield, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom, for the annual strategic dialogue between Switzerland and the UK. This year's talks focused on bilateral matters and on the challenging geopolitical context.

State Secretary Alexandre Fasel represented the FDFA at the sixth summit of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), which concluded in Geneva on 15 October 2026. Over the course of two days, over 1,000 representatives from the private sector, philanthropy, science, diplomacy and politics discussed the implications of future scientific and technological breakthroughs. The focus was on how the opportunities and risks of new developments can be identified at an early stage and shaped collectively.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Programme for the Development of Scientific Experiments (Prodex) is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Since 1986, the programme has provided funding for the development and use of scientific instruments and experiments. Switzerland played a key role in establishing Prodex and uses the programme to fund its space science experiments. In doing so, it promotes scientific excellence in ESA missions and missions run by international partners such as NASA, JAXA and CNES. The programme's achievements were celebrated in Zurich from 14 to 16 October.

On 15 and 16 October, Silvia Studinger, Deputy Director and Head of the Higher Education and General Education Division at the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, attended the informal meeting of EU education ministers. The meeting, which took place in Dublin, Ireland, focused on strategies to strengthen basic skills and improve the ability of education systems to anticipate future skills requirements.

The UN sanctions committee has amended the list of sanctioned individuals, companies and organizations. The SESAM database has been updated accordingly. On 4 March 2016 the Federal Council has adopted the Ordinance on the automatic application of the UN Security Council’s sanctions lists. Hence, the amendments of the UN Security Council’s sanctions lists enter into force in Switzerland without delay.

Every year, around 90,000 young people in Switzerland have their first sexual experiences. They need reliable information to protect themselves from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. LOVE LIFE is therefore specifically targeting 16- to 26-year-olds and building their health literacy through relatable information on safer sex.