Switzerland is not neutral regarding the events in Ukraine and unequivocally supports Kiev's position, Bern's ambassador to Kiev, Claude Wild, said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd November, 2022) Switzerland is not neutral regarding the events in Ukraine and unequivocally supports Kiev's position, Bern's ambassador to Kiev, Claude Wild, said on Wednesday.
"In the kind of scenario we are experiencing in Ukraine, we are not neutral... What Ukraine is doing is legal, what Russia is doing is illegal and illegitimate. So we stand very clearly for Ukraine's position," the diplomat said in an interview with the Swiss broadcaster RTS.
Wild also said that Switzerland's neutrality means that it is not supplying weapons or entering into a military alliance.
"We have to look at the credibility of those voices calling for negotiations and what price Ukraine would have to pay if it were to enter into negotiations. Today it is Russia that is calling for negotiations, of course, not Ukraine," the diplomat added.
On October 26, Federal Council, Switzerland's top executive body, reviewed the cornerstone principle of neutrality that governs the Swiss foreign and security policy after it was repeatedly asked to take a side in the conflict in Ukraine. The rare review, which was last conducted in 1993, concluded that the Swiss neutral stance provided sufficient leeway to make effective decisions and should not be changed.
Switzerland has repeatedly joined EU sanctions against Russia in response to Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine despite its proclaimed neutrality, however, Bern has also vetoed several requests by German authorities to re-export to Ukraine Swiss-made ammunition and machinery.
