Swiss foreign affairs officials said on August 12 that the country will be holding another round of human rights talks with China this year, saying the Chinese have just confirmed that they will take part in a scheduled set of meetings in the second half of 2013. Switzerland has been holding human rights talks with China since 1991; the last round of talks was in March 2011. The meetings this year will be the first since the two countries signed a free trade agreement in May of this year, the first for China with a European country. The new trade agreement has significance for human rights because the Swiss government is pushing to tie diplomatic efforts in the area of human rights to increased corporate social responsibility and sustainability.