An upcoming Ukraine peace summit, ostensibly the most ambitious bid in years by neutral Switzerland to mediate a major conflict, is instead showing how Swiss economic and security interests increasingly align with Western Europe over Russia.
This is the view of both Swiss advocates of closer cooperation with Western powers and nationalist opponents who say Switzerland is abandoning its neutral tradition and should limit the scope for foreign entanglements.
Russia has not been invited to the June 15-16 talks taking place at a lakeside resort near the central city of Lucerne, which Switzerland agreed in January to host at the behest of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Rather than ending the war, the summit is poised to work towards mitigating risks stemming from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and trying to isolate Russia, according to Western diplomats and Swiss foreign policy experts.
The ethos of neutrality isn’t in itself an invitation to drag the neutral position in your direction with increasingly extreme views. It’s unfair to say Switzerland is “aligning itself with Europe” and instead say Europe is less extremist.