On paper, nothing has changed. Switzerland has remained neutral, despite the security upheaval across the European continent stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. While two formerly neutral European states, Finland and Sweden, recently became part of NATO, Bern has adhered to a rigorous interpretation of its special status. Over the past two years, for example, it has regularly prohibited the transfer to the Ukrainian army of weapons it has sold abroad, some of them for decades.

In reality, however, a strategic shift has been underway, and the Swiss Confederation may be moving closer to the Atlantic Alliance behind the scenes, aware of how its strategic stance isolates it. Something that doesn't apply to the remaining three neutral European states (Ireland, Austria, Malta), which are part of the European Union (EU).

On August 29, a bombshell report from a group of experts on security issues is expected to be handed over to Swiss Defense Minister Viola Amherd, who this year also occupies the rotating position of president of the confederation. Charged with providing "the impetus for security policy in the years to come," this study committee began its work in July 2023, after the first year of war in Ukraine had underscored the deficiencies of Switzerland's security posture and the country became the subject of significant external criticism.

Made up of members of parliament from all sides, diplomats, senior civil servants, a former head of the Swiss army and even well-known foreign figure Wolfgang Ischinger, German ex-director of the Munich Security Conference, the group of experts has been working for a year in the greatest secrecy.

Nonetheless, the broad outlines of its recommendations have now become known, since the document was leaked to Zurich's popular daily Blick − no doubt in anticipation of the criticism that is sure to come from the left and pacifist wings of the Parti Socialiste (Social Democratic Party) and the Greens, as well as from the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP). A champion of Swiss sovereignty, the latter had already concluded that Switzerland abandoned its neutrality by observing EU sanctions against Russia.

The report's authors, who don't mince their words, seem to prefer Atlanticism to a wait-and-see attitude. "NATO remains, for the foreseeable future, the guarantor of Europe's security policy," they write. "It is the benchmark for modern Western armies, and sets the standards for weapons technology. Cooperation with NATO can strengthen Switzerland's defense capabilities." This would be especially necessary in the fields of digital and hybrid warfare. The group of experts does not suggest that Bern should join the Atlantic Alliance, even though the document "makes clear their affinity for it," the newspaper Blick reports, adding that "Russia has so far attacked only non-NATO countries."

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