Swiss against joining NATO but in favour of closer cooperation

[Sherman A1]

Most Swiss want to see closer cooperation with intergovernmental defence alliance NATO, according to a representative survey. However, they do not want to become a member.

This content was published on April 17, 2022 - 12:00 April 17, 2022 - 12:00

Against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 35% of respondents were in favour of closer cooperation with NATO, while 21% were “somewhat” in favour, SonntagsBlick revealed on SundayExternal link. But only 19% were definitely in favour of joining the alliance and another 14% were probably in favour of doing so.

Almost half (47%) of respondents thought the principle of Swiss neutrality was not violated by the adoption of EU sanctions against Russia. A further 11% tended to agree with this opinion.

In addition, 61% of respondents were in favour of Switzerland becoming more involved in Ukraine. However, 66% rejected delivering arms. On the other hand, 62% were in favour of Switzerland sending helmets and protective vests to Ukraine.

The representative survey of 20,000 participants was conducted by the research institute Sotomo together with the Blick Group between April 12 and 14.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-against-joining-nato-but-in-favour-of-closer-cooperation/47522862

[thucythucy]

1. Since Switzerland and Austria are literally surrounded by NATO

members, they both are protected from any sort of military attack--except cyber--so they get pretty much all the protection of being NATO members without any of the obligations. So actually joining NATO no doubt doesn't make sense to them.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Buying NATO armaments makes sense in case of war. Russian arms sales nose-diving.

Losing enormous quantities of equipment in fighting is not good for reputation of exports, even without the bite of sanctions.

Countries like Switzerland and Austria would benefit from interoperability with the winning armaments (NATO, US, Turkish drones, etc.).

https://indianexpress.com/article/world/russia-ukraine-war-india-weapons-systems-us-7799245/

Underlining that it would be difficult for any country to continue buying military hardware from Russia after US sanctions in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday that in the “last few” weeks, “what we’ve seen from India…is the cancellation of MiG-29 orders, Russian helicopter orders and anti-tank weapon orders.”