Small majority of Swiss back re-exporting arms to Ukraine

Graffiti on a wall of a damaged stadium in the city of Irpin, near Kyiv, on Saturday Keystone / Andrii Nesterenko

A majority of Swiss (55%) are in favour of re-exporting Swiss-made war materiel to Ukraine, according to the NZZ am Sonntag. This is currently prohibited by Swiss law.

“The population would support this, even if only by a narrow margin,” the paper saidExternal link, citing a representative opinion poll by the Sotomo Institute.

Some 55% of respondents said “yes” or “leaning towards yes” to the question of whether the government should allow other countries to transfer Swiss-made weapons to Ukraine; 5% didn’t know, and 40% were either slightly or very against such a move. Rejection was clearest among the ranks of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party: 74% of its supporters rejected a relaxation of export regulations.

Switzerland has previously rejected appeals from Germany to allow it to re-export Swiss-made ammunition to Ukraine, saying such a move would violate its neutrality. The export of the weapons or ammunition to Ukraine is blocked by the so-called non-export declaration, which buyers of Swiss armaments have to sign, as well as a specific embargo on arms sales to Ukraine and Russia.

On January 11 Spain said Switzerland was refusing to allow it to re-export war materiel to Ukraine. But pressure has been rising for Bern to review its policies, including at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF) it hosted in Davos earlier this month.

On Wednesday a Swiss parliamentary committee proposed waiving the re-export ban. “The majority of the committee deems that Switzerland should make a contribution to European security, which includes providing more aid to Ukraine,” the House of Representative’s Security Policy Committee said in a press release.