John Bolton insists Switzerland should join NATO

"Neutrality has no future in light of the new geopolitical situation," said John Bolton in an interview on Sunday. Keystone-SDA

Switzerland should join NATO, as in the future it cannot rely on its long-standing tradition of neutrality for its defence, John Bolton, Donald Trump's former national security adviser, declared in an interview on Sunday.

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“Trump will pick up where he left off four years ago,” the 75-year-old said in an interview published on Sunday by the SonntagsBlick newspaper. “He did a lot of damage in his first term. The second term will probably be even worse. Now Trump wants to realise all his radical ideas.”

Transatlantic relations will be put to the test, both economically and militarily, the Republican politician added.

“Trump has announced new tariffs of up to 20% on imports from Europe. The European Union should prepare for this eventuality, and I hear it is doing so. The last thing we need now is a trade war that has a negative impact on the global economy,” he said.

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Militarily, Trump may then want to abandon the North Atlantic Treaty, he went on.

“I was with him at the 2018 NATO summit in Brussels. He was on the verge of it at the time. He wants to leave NATO: depending on the course of the war in Ukraine, he might go all the way this time,” he said.

“One has to know Trump only does what he thinks is most beneficial to him. He does not understand what common defence means. He believes that the United States defends Europe without being paid to do so.”

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The former US ambassador to the United Nations urged European countries to spend more on defence.

“However, it seems clear to me that NATO is an important and, above all, functioning alliance that provides greater security for all members, including the United States,” he said.

“Switzerland should join NATO. I don’t want to get involved in your political debates, but I really believe it would be the best thing to do. Neutrality has no future in light of the new geopolitical situation. Even Sweden and Finland gave up their neutrality because they understood that they were only safe behind the NATO border.”

Translated from Italian by DeepL/sb

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