Swiss should be more flexible on neutrality, Nato cooperation: study

GENEVA: Switzerland should consider a more flexible approach to its military neutrality and seek closer defence cooperation with Nato and the European Union, a major security commission concluded on Thursday.

The study said the security picture in Europe had sharply deteriorated, notably due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, power politics and increasingly destabilised crisis regions.

The defence ministry established the study commission on security policy in July 2023, and tasked it with outlining security policy adapted to current threats.

Its report contained more than 100 recommendations, chiefly concerning Swiss neutrality, international cooperation, armaments policy and the orientation of security strategy.

Switzerland´s long-standing position has been one of well-armed military neutrality.

The landlocked nation is neither in Nato nor the EU, while its neighbours Germany, Italy and France are in both, and Austria is an EU member.

“The neutrality policy must be revised, more focused on its security function and applied more flexibly,” a statement said.

A majority of the commission recommended that the neutrality policy be more closely aligned with the United Nations charter, with greater consideration of the distinction between aggressor and victim.

“Switzerland cannot represent a security gap in Europe,” and its location surrounded by the EU makes the need for defence cooperation “clear”, the report said. “Neutrality is no obstacle to cooperation with Nato in security policy matters,” it added.