The lower house of the Swiss parliament, the National Council, rejected on June 1 a proposal to authorize the re-export of Swiss-made weapons to Ukraine. On this subject informed RTS television and radio company.
98 members of the House voted against the initiative, 75 for. The representative of the Swiss People’s Party’s largest right-wing populist party in the National Council, Jean-Luc Addor, said passing the law would be a violation of the military. neutrality to which Switzerland has long adhered.
Lower House Speaker Martin Kandinas, who has advocated allowing re-export, noted that the initiative would be time-limited – until the end of 2025. He also referred to the opinion of the majority of the members of the National Council’s commission on security policy, according to which the re-export of military equipment is “compatible with neutrality”.
The Committee proposed to remove certain restrictions on the export of arms and equipment “in exceptional circumstances” and if necessary to ensure national security, informed Associated Press.
It has also been proposed to adapt the law on the re-export of arms to allow shipments to countries which undertake to respect “the same values” as Switzerland and which have export controls similar to this one. .
Switzerland’s policy of neutrality, enshrined in the country’s constitution, prohibits the export of arms to active war zones. Swiss authorities have also banned the countries that hold its weapons – Germany, Spain and Finland – from transferring them to Kyiv. At the same time, Bern joined the international sanctions against Russia in the context of military operations in Ukraine.
In February 2023, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that due to the imposition of sanctions, Switzerland, according to the Russian authorities, is no longer a neutral state and cannot claim to be a mediator in the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine.
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