Switzerland Considers Deeper Security Ties with NATO

Neutral, but not self-sufficient. This is a basic principle that Switzerland practices in many fields. Be it in the networking of their pharmaceutical, watch and financial industries, in the bilateral contracts with the EU – and increasingly also in defense. In light of RussiaS war of aggression against Ukraine, Switzerland has been participating in the European Sky Shield air defense system promoted by Berlin as 2022.

members of Parliament in Bern now want to take the next step on this path. The small chamber, the Council of States, called on the government on Wednesday to begin negotiations with NATO on a partnership in the area of ​​security and defense. The Council of states thus expanded an initiative from the National Council, the large chamber, to negotiate a security partnership with the EU.

The national conservatives from the SVP are against it

What such an approach could actually look like and to what extent mutual assistance obligations would be possible seems entirely open at this point in time. “I can tell you that no one in Europe or around the world is waiting for Switzerland at the moment,” Defense Minister Martin Pfister dampened expectations in front of MPs. However, the political fronts have now become clearer. Even though there were dissenters in all parties and very free voting behavior is the rule in Switzerland, the initiative passed the Council of States thanks to majority approval from the bourgeois-liberal FDP, the Christian Democratic Center Party – and also from the representatives of the Social democrats and Greens.

The national conservative SVP offers the most decisive resistance to any international cooperation. The party with the largest number of voters continues to adhere to the dictum of its now 85-year-old grandfather, Christoph Blocher, that Swiss soldiers shoudl not interfere in “foreign wars.”