The lower house of the Swiss Parliament – the National Council – rejected a proposal to relax the ban on the re-export of ammunition and weapons.

Swissinfo.ch reported about this.

Deputies discussed the possible supply of ammunition to a country at war if the UN General Assembly condemns such an aggressive war and the aggressor country by a two-thirds vote.

At the same time, the National Council approved a proposal to allow the sale and re-export of weapons to third countries under certain conditions.

For example, based on the resolution of the UN Security Council that a certain country is guilty of violating international law, and the victim of aggression has the right to defense.

However, this does not change anything in practice, because Russia is a member of the UN Security Council and will block such a decision. So the lower house’s decision cements the status quo on Swiss arms exports.

On Monday, March 6, Switzerland’s upper house of parliament, the Council of States, also rejected a proposal to allow the re-export of weapons.

Position of Switzerland

Swiss President Alain Berset said on the sidelines of UN meetings that his country, as before, opposes arms exports to Ukraine.

The country bans the re-export of Swiss weapons to states at war, but the country’s long tradition of neutrality has been debated since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine just over a year ago.

“Discussion on the export of weapons, armaments… while we have (our) legal basis in Switzerland, this is impossible… For the government and for the Federal Council, we must, and we want, to support this legal basis and work within this legal basis,” Berset said, who currently serves as the country’s president on a rotating basis for one year.

His comments came after Berlin asked Switzerland in late February for permission to buy old Swiss Leopard tanks, guaranteeing that they would not be transferred to Ukraine.

Despite requests from Kyiv and its allies, Switzerland has so far refused to allow countries that own Swiss-made weapons to re-export them to Ukraine, and has so far rejected direct requests from Germany, Spain and Denmark. At the same time, Alain Berset, who met in New York with the head of the UN António Guterres just before the Secretary General’s trip to Ukraine, noted that the Swiss parliament “has many opportunities to change laws.”