Switzerland will allow the sale of weapons to countries embroiled in conflict, in a move favourable to its defence industry. The country insists such exports are compatible with neutrality.
Switzerland will allow the sale of weapons to countries embroiled in conflict, in a move favourable to its defence industry. The country insists such exports are compatible with neutrality.
If it is still true, it means this whole manoeuvre wouldn’t fix the problem other countries have with the current Swiss regulations.
These other countries got wary because they couldn’t give their weapons to a country in need due to Swiss regulations - and this would remain the case. So it’s eyewash.
SRF Explainer in German (Video)
Referendum website in German
Swissmem (Verband der Schweizer Maschinen-, Elektro- und Metallindustrie, German)
Basically export to everyone except Ukraine. The Re-export regulation will be removed, with the federal council retaining a Veto … which they probably will only use when its about Ukraine.
An argument from the counter campaign is, that if they had wanted to help Ukraine, like they claimed at the beginning of the revision, they could have just changed small details.
Especially lifting restrictions for the US, Hungary and Argentina but not Ukraine is insane to me.
It looks like a list of countries that are so comfortably safe, secure and stable (well… maybe not the US) that they won’t have a need for weapons anytime soon anyway. Excluding the Baltics for example only strengthens this suspicion.
The Swiss arms industry drastically shrunk while the world scrambles for arms. This strikes me as a PR move to stem the bleeding while changing nothing of substance.