The Swiss defense industry is under increasing pressure due to the decline in arms sales due to reexport restrictions of weapons to Ukraine, said the country’s President on 28 October.
Reuters reports that Switzerland’s president Viola Amherd has expressed support for revising Switzerland’s ban on reexporting Swiss made weapons to Ukraine.
Amherd, at a press conference in Bern on the 28th of October, said: “I think that we need to make a step forward for our industry.”
The Swiss President, who is also the Defense Minister, emphasized the concrete business implications of current policy.
“It’s difficult because countries such as the Netherlands have decided to not buy in Switzerland, since it is not free to export,” she said.
Critics attribute the decline in sales to Switzerland’s neutrality.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, despite its neutrality, Switzerland will be the 14th largest arms supplier in the world by 2022.
Amherd stated that direct weapons supplies to conflict zones are still prohibited. “If we have problems with our armaments industries, we also have security problems because it’s essential to have technology and knowledge,” she said.
The Swiss parliament had previously recommended that these restrictions be loosened, but the government rejected this last year. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, pressure has increased both domestically as well as internationally to change Switzerland’s neutrality.
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