Switzerland agrees to send Ukraine dozens of… old trams

Switzerland as a neutral country will not send arms to Ukraine, but its government said on Friday that dozens of retired trams from Bern and Zurich would be sent to the war-torn country.

Published: 12 January 2024 17:25 CET

Switzerland agrees to send Ukraine dozens of... old trams

Two trams run in the center of Bern, Switzerland 02 November, 2005. AFP PHOTO FABRICE COFFRINI (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

Eleven trams will be sent to the major western city of Lviv, which has seen its population swell with people fleeing the conflict zones in the south and east, the government said in a statement.

The central city of Vinnytsia will also receive trams, which are likewise in “perfect working order”.

“The vehicles are in good condition and will still be able to circulate for 10 to 12 years in Ukraine,” the statement said, adding that the first trams would be delivered in the third quarter of this year.

“Many people took refuge in Lviv following the Russian offensive, and many businesses were also relocated there, confronting the city with a significant population growth,” the statement said.

“Road traffic has increased accordingly, which is why the additional trams are very welcome.”

Switzerland is covering the cost of getting the trams to Lviv and training workers for maintaining them, plus the construction of a new tram line to a hospital.

Retired Zurich trams were first sent to Vinnytsia between 2007 and 2011, with more delivered under a 2021 deal. In a new agreement, 31 more trams are being sent from Switzerland’s financial capital.

Besides the Zurich trams in Vinnytsia, old trams from Bern are still in operation in Romania and former Basel trams are in service in Belgrade.

Switzerland’s long-standing position is one of well-armed military neutrality.

Though it has matched the European Union’s economic sanctions on Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has refused to send armaments or allow countries that hold Swiss-made weaponry to re-export it to Ukraine.

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The study said the security picture in Europe had sharply deteriorated, notably due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, power politics and increasingly destabilised crisis regions.

The defence ministry established the study commission on security policy in July 2023, and tasked it with outlining security policy adapted to current threats.

Its report contained more than 100 recommendations, chiefly concerning Swiss neutrality, international cooperation, armaments policy and the orientation of security strategy.

Switzerland’s long-standing position has been one of well-armed military neutrality.

The landlocked nation is neither in NATO nor the EU, while its neighbours Germany, Italy and France are in both, and Austria is an EU member.

“The neutrality policy must be revised, more focused on its security function and applied more flexibly,” a statement said.

A majority of the commission recommended that the neutrality policy be more closely aligned with the United Nations charter, with greater consideration of the distinction between aggressor and victim.

“Switzerland cannot represent a security gap in Europe,” and its location surrounded by the EU makes the need for defence cooperation “clear”, the report said.

“Neutrality is no obstacle to cooperation with NATO in security policy matters,” it added.

“Cooperation with NATO and the EU should be further deepened with the aim of a common defence capability and developing a genuine defence cooperation,” the statement said.

Switzerland should therefore set out its expectations from its own defence capabilities, and what it could offer to cooperation partners.

With the committee finding hybrid warfare was “the main threat to Switzerland”, the country’s arms industry should be strengthened and calibrated more closely to the threat situation.

Therefore, “access to EU and NATO cooperation projects should be ensured”.

The report also called for strengthened diplomatic efforts on international arms control and on regulating new technologies.

The report’s author said Russia’s aggression in Ukraine opened the door to a conflict with NATO, and said Switzerland’s neutrality did not guarantee it would not be attacked.

The study recommended increasing the defence budget to one percent of gross domestic product by 2030.

The report will feed into the broader 2025 security policy strategy.