Switzerland has taken a step to re-export weapons to Ukraine

A Security Policy Committee of the Swiss parliament supported the lifting of the ban on arms re-exports.

The Swiss publication Blick reported that on Tuesday, the Security Policy Committee of the National Council of Switzerland proposed to change the law on arms exports.

The Security Policy Committee made this decision just three days after the Ukrainian conference. The draft law will now be submitted to the National Council.

“This should allow indirect supplies of Swiss-made weapons to Ukraine,” the Swiss publication said.

Ten members of the committee voted in favor of and against the decision, with four abstentions, so the deciding vote was cast by the commission chairman, Priska Seiler Graf.

“It is unclear whether this majority will be maintained in the plenary sessions of the National Council and the Council of States. In addition, it will certainly take some time before the softened law on war materials comes into force,” the newspaper notes.

It is emphasized that for almost two years, Swiss politicians have been looking for legal options that would allow in certain cases to transfer weapons to the warring parties despite Switzerland’s neutrality, but so far, all proposals have failed.

In its draft law, the Commission proposed to ease the ban on re-exports for countries on a certain list that have similar export control mechanisms to Switzerland and share similar values with Switzerland.

Transfer of weapons

Arms can only be transferred from the recipient country to a third country if that country complies with the requirements of not seriously and systematically violating human rights, and there must be no risk that military equipment from Switzerland will be used against civilians in the third country.

If a third country is involved in an armed conflict, re-exports are allowed if the country exercises its right to self-defense under international law and the UN Security Council has found a violation of the prohibition on the use of force under international law in accordance with the UN Charter.

According to the Security Policy Committee, recipient countries must decide for themselves whether to transfer military materials, and the transferring country must decide for itself whether the conditions for the transfer have been met.

As previously reported, the Swiss defense company RUAG wants to sell 96 German Leopard 1 tanks to transfer them to Ukraine.