Switzerland and Georgia are preparing to step up their economic relations with a number of new treaties, the Swiss foreign minister announced on Monday.

The treaties will cover the legal framework for increased trade relations and Swiss direct investments, Micheline Calmy-Rey told journalists after a meeting with her Georgian counterpart Grigol Vashadze.

The treaties should be ready for signing next year, she said.

Relations between the two countries had grown stronger in the aftermath of the war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008, when Switzerland began acting as an “information channel” between the two, she added.

Since the conflict Georgia and Russia have suspended diplomatic relations: instead Switzerland represents the interests of each country in the other’s capital.

Vashadze thanked Switzerland for its good offices, and also for its technical, humanitarian and financial help.

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