Swiss Ambassador Dr. Dominik Furgler and his wife Hayam Furgler held a reception on the occasion of the 732nd anniversary of the Swiss Confederation. It was also a moment for the ambassador and his wife to bid farewell to many Sri Lankan partners and friends after three intensive and challenging years. On their National Day – officially on 1 August – the Swiss commemorate the origin of their confederation when in the year 1291 three regional communities in the center of today’s Switzerland vowed to support each other against the mounting pressure of surrounding powers interested in the strategic control of the north-south passage over the Alps. This alliance of independent states grew over the centuries and eventually became today’s Switzerland, consisting of 26 Cantons in a Federal State.