A China-bound plane carrying the Foreign Minister of Switzerland was rerouted to Moscow, on Friday afternoon, over technical issues, Bern has revealed. It landed safely.
Ignazio Cassis, who is also the country's Vice President, was heading to the province of Zhejiang to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Writing on Twitter, the Swiss Foreign Ministry revealed that government plane carrying Cassis would be checked in order to determine whether onward journey to China is possible. The plane touched down some time later at the Russian capital’s Domodedovo airport.
Cassis' journey comes eight months after the Swiss government adopted a brand new China strategy. According to Bern, the meeting was due to cover "many areas of Swiss–China cooperation," including bilateral trade, human rights and multilateral cooperation.
The plane, used almost exclusively by members of Switzerland's Federal Council, is a Falcon 900EX, a long-range jet made by France's Dassault Aviation. The model is popular with governments and air forces around the world.
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