Switzerland, known for its historical neutrality during wars, proposes a substantial increase in defense spending, projecting to reach a 19% increase in the next 4 years. This strategic change responds to growing global insecurity, intensified by the conflict in Ukraine and instability in the Middle East. The defense budget proposal contemplates an allocation that would exceed 29 billion euros between 2025 and 2028, marking a notable increase compared to the almost 23 billion euros allocated in the previous four-year period.
Defense Minister Viola Amherd, who also currently holds the country's rotating presidency, said in a press conference held in the middle of last week that due to cost-cutting measures implemented over the last three decades, “the army has been weakened.” She amherd acknowledged that “the weakening is not just an accusation, but a fact that dates back to the fall of the Berlin Wall,” and she stressed that the recovery of military strength will take time.
More than three decades in which annual defense spending has experienced a significant decrease, going from 1.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1989 to 0.8% in 2022. And since the turn of the millennium, has maintained this downward trend, periodically falling below 1% of GDP, with fluctuations between 0.9% and 0.7%, according to data from the World Bank.
The measure reflects the growing security concerns of the self-proclaimed “neutral” country, where in recent years, Swiss authorities have denounced growing threats in the area of cyberspace and espionage activities in the Alpine country.
Over the last few years, the Government and Parliament have concentrated their efforts on protecting airspace through the acquisition of F-35 fighters and ground-to-air systems. However, the projected increase in defense spending will be allocated to the development and strengthening of various strategic elements, such as radar systems, short-range missile defense, the tank fleet, missiles used by ground forces and defense capabilities. against cyber attacks. The Government also intends to acquire 24 additional tanks, seeking to improve the mobility of ground forces.
The left-wing parties that make up the opposition and the Swiss Ecological Party, known as The Greens, opposed a “blind logic of rearmament,” warning that this increase in the military budget could be detrimental to spending on education, agriculture, the environment. or development aid.
The unprecedented increase in the Swiss defense budget follows the trend of several member states of both the European Union and NATO, blocs to which Switzerland has never joined, which have increased their military spending since Russia annexed Crimea from unilaterally in February 2014.
The war in Ukraine has revived the debate in European parliaments on the export of war material, which while “the global level of international arms transfers decreased by 5.1% between 2013-22, imports of large weapons by the European states increased by 47% in the same period,” as stated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in a study published early last year.
According to data from the SIPRI study, the United States and Russia - the first and second arms exporters over the last three decades - have increased the gap significantly, while the distance between Russia and the third, France, has narrowed. US arms exports increased 14% between 2013-22, accounting for 40% of global arms exports between 2018-22. On the other hand, Russia suffered a drop in its arms exports of 31% in the same period, seeing its global share decline from 22% to 16%, while France increased from 7.1% to 11%.
In addition, the European Defense Fund approved in 2018 for the period between 2021-27 in the European Parliament, allocated a budget of 7 billion euros for research and development of military products. An unprecedented budget, with a 1,250% increase in funding for military research and development from one budget cycle to the next. This forecast will allocate 500 million euros to finance the development of defense equipment and technology and almost 600 million European public funds to very lucrative private companies such as the lobby made up of BAE System, MBDA, Indra, Airbus, Leonardo and Saab, the three last beneficiaries, under substantial accusations of corruption against them in recent years. In addition, resources will also be allocated to the Fraunhofer and TNO institutes, as well as the Association of Aerospace and Defense Industries of Europe, “engaged in highly questionable practices, far from human rights standards and the rule of law, two of the main values of the EU”, as pointed out by the Center for Peace Studies (Delàs).
The Delàs Center's reading of the amount of the European Defense Fund budget is that “these pilot projects expose deeply worrying trends regarding militarism promoted by Europe. The EU, with a budget 13.6 times larger than that of its predecessor programmes, is now increasingly determined to invest in war instead of building and maintaining peace.”
The statement by the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, within the framework of the Munich Security Conference, seem to corroborate the vision of the Delàs Center. The French president encouraged European countries to “invest massively in defense” to guarantee the security of the EU. Meanwhile, the German leader urged the allies to accelerate the delivery of ammunition, weapons and Leopard tanks to kyiv.
After overcoming a global pandemic, we must now question the meaning of the term security and ask ourselves what makes us feel protected. “Is it investment in weapons, defense and military infrastructure? Or is it through guaranteeing access to a functioning public health system, to education and improving access to social services, responding to climate change and other challenges we face?”, asks Pere Brunet, associate expert. to the Delàs Center.
