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10:17 07 Feb 2023

Switzerland may drop neutrality on military aid for Ukraine – Reuters

Photo: open sources

Switzerland may abandon its long-standing neutrality status and allow the export of self-produced weapons to Ukraine.

As public and political opinion shifts in favor of Ukraine, pressure is mounting on the government to lift the ban on transferring Swiss arms to war zones, Reuters reports.

The current law prohibits buyers from re-exporting Swiss weapons, and this restriction harms trade, according to some representatives of the country's arms industry.

Meanwhile, the call of Switzerland's European neighbors to allow the transfer of weapons to Kyiv is getting louder. 

Swiss lawmakers are divided on this issue.

Center-right Free Democratic Party leader Thierry Burkart has asked the government to allow arms re-exports to countries with democratic values similar to Switzerland's.

"We want to be neutral, but we are part of the western world," he told Reuters in an interview.

Theoretically, third countries can ask Bern for approval to re-export Swiss weapons they have on hand, but such requests are typically rejected.

The politician believes that Switzerland shouldn't have a veto to stop other countries from providing aid to Ukraine. Otherwise, it would mean supporting russia, "which is not a neutral position."

"Other countries want to support Ukraine and do something for the security and stability of Europe… They cannot understand why Switzerland has to say no," Burkart said.

More voters in Switzerland agree with this position. A Sotomo poll published on February 5 showed that 55% of respondents support re-exporting weapons to Ukraine. 

"If we had asked this question before the war…, the response would have probably been less than 25%. Talking about changing neutrality was a taboo in the past," Lukas Golder, co-director of pollsters GFS-Bern, told Reuters.

Center-right FDP leader Thierry Burkart says he received positive signals about changing the law from other parties. The Swiss government, in its turn, declared that it would not interfere with the parliamentary discussions.

Bern "adheres to the existing legal framework.. and will deal with the proposals in due course," said a spokesman for the Department of Economic Affairs, which handles arms trade.

For background

Swiss neutrality, which dates back to 1815 and was reinforced in a treaty in 1907, forbids Switzerland from supplying weapons directly or indirectly to warring parties. It maintains a separate embargo on weapons sales to russia and Ukraine.

Switzerland has already rejected German and Danish requests to allow them to re-export Swiss armored vehicles and ammunition for anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine.

Spain's request to deliver two Oerlikon cannons to Ukraine is pending and unlikely to be approved, according to a Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs representative.

Ukrainian officials have also called on the Swiss government to reconsider its arm-supply stance. Among them was Vitalii Klychko, mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, regularly attacked by russian kamikaze drones and missiles.

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