Almost 100 Swiss-made Leopard 1 tanks are being stored out in the open in Italy following Switzerland's refusal to allow their transfer to Ukraine, Swiss public broadcasting organization RSI reported on Aug. 26.
Apparently about 20 of those tanks were sold to a German company in 2019. So they don't belong to Switzerland and are not located in Switzerland. I really hope at least those cam be given to Ukraine...
Needing approvement for re-export is not some magical Swiss law but the rule all arms trade is based on.
Sure, you can just ignore it. But then nobody will sell you anythjing anymore, because no country is willing to sell any of their military technology without control who gets their hands on those pieces.
I'm Swiss, this is a way to strict neutrality. But the biggest party in Switzerland suddenly is against weapon exports, now that is about helping Ukraine fight Russia. I'm pretty sure that they have strong ties to Russia or Russian money...
Hopefully the 20-something tanks out of those 100 that were sold in 2019 can get to Ukraine!
No strict neutrality in your country if your compatriot are always taking dictator money. And not returning stolen goods from jews murdered in the holocaust. Your country is not neutral at all and picked a side a long time ago. All swiss are complicit in this.
While everyone talks about nobody ever wanting to buy Swiss arms again, Switzerlands arms exports actually increased by 30% in the last year.
Because they can always sell to totally unproblematic countries without territoral or human-rights issues in Africa, Asia or the middle-East to make up the losses in Europe/US.
Yeah, they're trading off the short-term gain of shady Russian oligarch money for the long-term cost of their arms exports.
Countries buy weapons to use in ways that enhance their national defense, and in this case their national defense is best served by giving the tanks to Ukraine to wreck Russia for them. Now it's clear to all that buying Swiss saddles you with limitations that prevent you from using their weapons optimally.
Yeah, this one is easy. Just put a new stamp on the side of the tanks, send them, and if Switzerland asks just say you don't know what happened to the tanks and your privacy laws prohibit you from saying anything else about it.
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