After a definitive Swiss ‘no’, the Netherlands cannot buy Swiss tanks to send on to the Ukrainian battlefield. Still, that doesn’t change anything: the minimum hundred tanks that the Netherlands, together with Denmark and Germany, want to supply to the country, will be delivered one way or another.
It is a line through the bill, the final rejection of an export license by the Swiss parliament. At the beginning of this month, that parliament already indicated that it was not interested in a deal whereby 96 Leopard 1 A5 tanks, owned by the Swiss company Ruag, would be brought to Ukraine via the Netherlands. Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren then entered into talks with the Swiss. At the time, she still had ‘good hopes’ for a positive outcome for the Netherlands. It definitely isn’t there now.
Leopard tanks are of German manufacture, which means that Germany always has to give permission for the weaponry to be transported to Kyiv. But if the military equipment is in Switzerland, the Swiss must also give permission for this. The country considers this to be in violation of the principle of neutrality. Switzerland does not want to get involved in any war. That is why the country has been struggling for months with the export of arms to Ukraine by other countries. Now the Netherlands is also falling victim to this.
Too bad, says the Ministry of Defense. In February, the cabinet agreed with Germany and Denmark to deliver at least 100 tanks to Ukraine. Part of it has already been delivered, and was bought from the German tank builder itself. How much is unknown; the ministry does not want to say anything about numbers. The 96 Swiss second-hand tanks, after an overhaul, should also have gone to the Ukrainian battlefields. Nevertheless, according to a Defense spokesman, the Swiss refusal “has no influence on the decision to deliver at least 100 tanks”. “We are going to get that number.”
But the Netherlands hoped to be able to supply considerably more tanks, firepower that Ukraine can use during the long-awaited spring offensive. The ministry is now tapping ‘alternatives’ for this: countries that still have (old) Leopard 1 tanks in their shed. The Ministry of Defense does not want to say which countries these are. That “doesn’t help the process.”
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