Zurich, Geneva It could be the lowest common denominator in the dispute over the export of armaments between Switzerland and Europe: Switzerland has 230 Leopard 2 battle tanks, a total of 96 of which have been decommissioned. Germany would like to buy some of them. They are intended to replace tanks that Western countries have given to Ukraine. But progress on this issue is very slow.
Mauro Tuena is President of the Security Policy Commission in the Federal Palace, which is responsible for questions relating to arms exports. In an interview with the Handelsblatt, the parliamentarian from the right-wing conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) expects a decision from the Swiss parliament “not until September, maybe a little earlier”. So far, observers had assumed that the National Council, the large chamber of parliament, would decide on the issue in June.
The Swiss army no longer uses the tanks. But the prerequisite for the sale is a formal decommissioning of the Leopard tanks by the Swiss Parliament. In other words, the Germans can only count on a tank deal with Switzerland in just under half a year, if at all.
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had already sent a letter to Federal Councilor Viola Amherd, who is responsible for defense, on February 23.
In the letter, the German ministers explained “Rheinmetall’s interest in acquiring stored Leopard 2 main battle tanks from the Swiss army, provided they are not to be put back into use”.
Swiss federal government has the last word
The arms manufacturer would serve as a hub to refurbish and ship Leopard 2 tanks to those partner countries that have in turn shipped tanks to Ukraine. Switzerland would then take part in a ring exchange afterwards.
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The deal has already cleared a parliamentary hurdle: the security policy committee of the upper chamber of parliament has already approved the decommissioning of 25 Leopard tanks. But the vote of both chambers is missing.
In addition, Tuena emphasizes that Parliament can only create the legal conditions for the sale to the neighboring country. Ultimately, the Swiss federal government would have to decide on the deal itself. The incumbent Swiss Federal President Alain Berset had recently expressed his negative opinion.
The struggle for the Leopard 2 tanks is just one example of how difficult neutral Switzerland is with demands for military support for Ukraine. The country also sticks to the controversial no to the transfer of armaments from Swiss production that have already been exported to partners in Europe.
Switzerland has enshrined its neutrality in the constitution. This is also reflected in the country’s War Material Act, which regulates the export of armaments. Exports of weapons and ammunition to war zones are strictly prohibited.
Countries that import armaments from Switzerland generally undertake not to pass on the weapons or at least to obtain approval from the federal government. Two parliamentary initiatives to limit the validity of such re-export declarations or, in the case of Ukraine, to suspend them did not find a majority.
The case of the Gepard anti-aircraft tank, for example, also triggers continued resentment in the German federal government. Germany began transferring cheetah specimens to the beleaguered country in Eastern Europe in 2022.
Germany has delivered several examples of this tank to Ukraine.
(Photo: IMAGO/Björn Trotsky)
The Germans wanted to deliver Swiss-made ammunition from their stocks at the same time. But to this day, Bern stubbornly refuses to give Berlin the green light to hand in the Gepard projectiles.
Sought-after export range of the armaments industry
The dispute recently overshadowed the visit of Swiss President Berset to Berlin with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Scholz said in a joint statement: “This war in Europe calls on us all to critically examine our self-image and sometimes to be willing to make uncomfortable but right decisions.”
But Switzerland hasn’t got that far: “You can’t demand that we break our own laws,” Berset regularly replies to criticism of his country’s attitude.
In the export range of the Swiss armaments industry there is much that Ukraine could use in its fight against Russia: tanks and armored land vehicles, anti-aircraft systems, manned and unmanned aircraft and the corresponding engines, bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, military explosive, and fuels as well as special instruments such as range finders or night vision devices. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Switzerland ranked 14th among the world’s largest arms exporters between 2018 and 2022.
The dispute over arms deliveries overshadowed the visit of the Swiss Federal President to the Chancellery.
(Photo: ddp/abaca press)
But Switzerland is increasingly getting on the defensive when it comes to arguments, observes the Zurich international law expert Oliver Diggelmann. “The law of neutrality works schematically and forbids the military favoring of a warring party in an ongoing state war, which is of course a problem when there is clear aggression,” he judges.
In addition, the Western partners are also increasing the pressure on the Confederates on a second sensitive issue: the implementation of sanctions against Russia. Russian citizens have stashed hundreds of billions in Swiss banks.
New dispute over enforcement of sanctions
So far, the responsible State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) has frozen around 7.75 billion francs. Not enough, criticized the US ambassador in Bern, Scott Miller, in an interview in the “NZZ”. Switzerland could freeze another 50 to 100 billion, he demanded.
At the beginning of April, the ambassadors of the G7 countries followed suit. In a letter to the Federal Council, they warned that Swiss lawyers “in their role as financial intermediaries” would help to circumvent sanctions by using complex company structures to cover up “the traces of parked assets”.
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The ambassadors also called on the government to have the competent authority, Seco, participate in the international task force tasked with tracking down Russian assets on behalf of Ukraine’s partner countries.
The former Swiss ambassador in Berlin, Thomas Borer, recently rejected the criticism in an interview with the Handelsblatt: “It would be better if the West would concentrate on countries like Turkey, which are actively helping to circumvent the sanctions.”
Recently, however, trustees with Swiss passports, among others, have been put on the US sanctions lists, as has an asset manager from Geneva with connections to the oligarch Alisher Usmanov. This gives new impetus to the debate about the enforcement of sanctions against Russia in Switzerland.
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