Switzerland flies under the radar at NATO gathering

Switzerland and Sweden: often confused, often compared – but when it comes to NATO, only one of them is a full member of the club. Domhnall O'Sullivan / SWI swissinfo.ch

Lawmakers from defence alliance NATO and partner countries met in Slovenia in early October for three days of talks about drones, tanks and all things military. Swissinfo went along.

At a time when NATO-US relations could best be described as complicated, have the Europeans just been unceremoniously ghosted?

Speculation to this effect is spreading among the 250-odd politicians gathered in Ljubljana for the 71st annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA). The three-day event has started on a sour note: not one of the 36-strong US delegation has shown up.

The official cause of the no-show, it turns out, is more banal: a government shutdown in Washington, which has been hobbling federal operations since October 1.

Still, whatever the reason, the absence isn’t welcome. “It’s not the most positive signal,” says Jacqueline de Quattro, a member of the five-person Swiss delegation. Switzerland, despite its neutral, non-NATO status, has been at the event as an associate member since 1999, as part of its “partnership for peace” cooperation with the alliance.

Read more about what the NATO PA does – and what the Swiss role there involves:

But even without the US, the show must go on. For de Quattro, as a Swiss representative, the main value of the weekend remains gaining insight into the security concerns of other nations, especially those facing direct threats.

Back in Switzerland, there’s still a certain “naivety”, says de Quattro, a member of the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party. Even as drones swirl above Europe, some in the Alpine nation still believe they are “safely tucked behind the mountains”.

After hearing from certain NATO countries, such “illusions” don’t last long, de Quattro says. “You’re directly confronted with reality.”

Jacqueline de Quattro in Ljubljana: back in the Swiss parliament, she is vice-president of the the House of Representatives’ Security Policy Committee. National Assembly / Matija Sušnik

Sobering scenarios

Indeed, in committee meetings and briefings over the course of this event, threats abound. Maps of sabotage operations across Europe – and under the seas around it – are projected across the exhibition hall, as parliamentarians and aides take notes. Warfare can be hybrid, energy-related or “cognitive”. Russia looms large. De Quattro says she is particularly worried about the “axis” of authoritarian powers working to undermine the West.

Ultimately the atmosphere is a mix between a United Nations meeting in Geneva’s Palais des Nations and a defence policy think-tank. Experts outline sobering scenarios; parliamentarians listen, ask questions and occasionally vote on committee resolutions, which are then passed on to the NATO PA’s “bigger sister” – NATO itself.

Does the bigger sibling then act on the recommendations? Not always. One wish of the NATO PA, the creation of a “Centre for Democratic Resilience” within NATO, has been proposed at least 18 times; at NATO level, it is constantly batted down, reportedly by Hungary.  

NATO at least listens. On Monday the closing plenary is visited by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. In Ljubljana Rutte is keen to push on with NATO’s recent goal, announced in June, to boost national defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. And while government leaders made that decision, parliamentarians have budgetary power, as Rutte knows.

“We must keep up the tempo,” he urged. “I count upon you, as parliamentarians, to make the case with your public and encourage your governments to keep up with their commitments. […] You all play a vital role to keep NATO’s one billion people safe.” 

Understated institution

As for how many of these one billion people are aware of the NATO PA and its vital role, that’s difficult to say.

The event has attracted attention in host Slovenia: camera crews and journalists are on hand. So are the prime and foreign ministers. “It’s the biggest inter-parliamentary event in the country’s history,” we learn at an opening press conference. Protestors are also interested; anti-NATO anarchists disrupt traffic in central Ljubljana on Saturday evening.

A protest banner close to the convention centre in Ljubljana wants more decision-making power for “the people” – rather than for the elites or NATO. Domhnall O’Sullivan / SWI swissinfo.ch

International journalists are rather less numerous. The handful who have been accredited get to read posters in the lobby about what the NATO PA is (a meeting of elected representatives from NATO and partners, founded in 1955), what it’s not(it is formally separate from NATO as such, despite the rather similar logo), and what it does (“foster transatlantic parliamentary dialogue”, “further democracy”, “shape NATO policies”).

However, when it comes to headline decisions about war and peace, or military budgets, the NATO PA is perhaps not the place – rather, the impression is that the institution tends to fly under the radar.

A ‘consolidated’ position

The same could be said for Switzerland’s delegation.

In committee meetings, mostly held in English, certain accents and origins dominate: British, Canadian, Scandinavian, Baltic. A “Swiss accent”, if such a thing exists, is rarely heard. One US journalist, who has covered the event for years, says she’s never noticed the Swiss.

Mathias Zopfi, a member of the delegation from the left-wing Green Party, says this “passivity” is deliberate. As an associate member, the delegation has no voting rights at the NATO PA, limiting its voice. But it’s also careful to reflect the domestic political situation in Switzerland, where NATO and neutrality are contentious.

“We’re a five-person delegation, but when it comes to the details of Swiss-NATO relations we probably have five different positions,” Zopfi explains.

His Green Party, for example, tends towards more cooperation with the European Union, if not NATO. De Quattro’s Radical-Liberals take a more pragmatic international line on defence, while the right-wing Swiss People’s Party has isolationist tendencies. Its delegate, Werner Salzmann, who is also in Ljubljana, declines to speak to Swissinfo; he refers questions to the delegation’s head, Priska Seiler Graf from the left-wing Social Democratic Party.

Despite the differences, Zopfi says, at the NATO PA the delegation “sees itself as a team”, presenting a “consolidated” Swiss position rather than party-political lines. To maintain this balance, it remains “very reserved”.

Mathias Zopfi represents the central Swiss canton Glarus in the Senate. Domhnall O’Sullivan / SWI swissinfo.ch

‘Tolerant indulgence’

How does this come across to others at the event? Since Russia’s 2022 attack on Ukraine, Swiss neutrality and “reservedness” hasn’t always been smiled upon by Western states. Charges of “freeloading” have been heard.

At the NATO PA, however, there’s not much sign of this. Nuances of Swiss neutrality are not high on the agenda. Officially, diplomacy prevails. Asked about the Swiss position, Marcos Perestrello, the Portuguese president of the assembly, is polite: it’s “very relevant and very well understood”.

De Quattro, for her part, says she has never felt any “hostility or criticism” towards the Swiss position. This isn’t to say everybody loves it. She sometimes senses the Swiss are “tolerantly indulged” – as if they haven’t yet fully grasped the security situation.

Zopfi adds that since the war in Ukraine, questions about the viability of Swiss neutrality have come up in private discussions. But it depends who you speak to, he says: states closer to the frontline are more likely to be miffed about the Swiss position; southern countries are more understanding.

View from Vienna

Meanwhile, the club of neutrals is dwindling. Here in Ljubljana, thanks to the merciless logic of the alphabet, Switzerland sits next to Sweden – a country with which it is often compared (and confused) but which dropped its neutrality to join NATO in 2024. Finland did the same a year earlier.

Fellow hold-out Austria – neutral, central European, and with the same number of delegates as Switzerland – is present. How welcome is its neutrality in a NATO setting?

Christine Schwarz-Fuchs of the Austrian People’s Party reports a similar experience to her Swiss colleagues. Austrian neutrality is generally understood and “supported”, she says. But in the past few years questions have popped up, including direct ones like: “aren’t you also thinking of joining us?”

On this, the answer from Vienna – as it is from Bern – is a polite “no”, Schwarz-Fuchs says. Public opinion in Austria, like in Switzerland, doesn’t speak for NATO adhesion anytime soon.

Christine Schwarz-Fuchs at a committee meeting during the NATO PA in Ljubljana. NATO PA

Still, like in Switzerland, the new security situation has left a mark. Debates about military funding are ongoing after years of “neglect”, Schwarz-Fuchs says. Her country is also exploring how to motivate young people to defend it in the first place – whether in a military or a civil way.

On this, Schwarz-Fuchs says, Switzerland – and the “preparedness” of its people – is much admired across the border in Austria. From there, at least, the idea of the ever-ready Swiss, with their bunkers and military service, is alive and well.

Edited by Benjamin von Wyl/ts