The armaments company Rheinmetall develops and tests weapons in Switzerland which it then has manufactured in Italy. These are then delivered to Ukraine, even though Switzerland prohibits the sale of arms to countries at war.
These are two air defense systems developed by Rheinmetall Air Defense, headquartered in Zurich. The total value of the equipment to be delivered by the end of the year is 183 million francs.
“We confirm that Rheinmetall will deliver two Skynex systems to Ukraine by the end of this year,” arms manufacturer spokesman Oliver Hoffmann said on Sunday. He thus confirmed information published in the “Sonntagszeitung”. These systems are produced and then delivered from Rome, where the group’s Italian site is located, continues the spokesperson.
Two rejections
Switzerland prohibits the delivery of war material to Ukraine, but not the transfer of know-how to other countries, as specified in Article 7 of thewar material ordinance. Most European countries, including Italy, are on the list. This provision makes it possible, in fact, to circumvent the ban.
The “Sonntagszeitung” recalls that two requests for authorization to export the same anti-aircraft system had previously been rejected by Switzerland. Rheinmetall Air Defense had unsuccessfully sought to sell it to Thailand in 2017 and to Egypt the following year.
On the other hand, the company was able to export this same model to Qatar in 2021 for the Football World Cup. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) does not say whether, for the last case concerning Italy and Ukraine, Rheinmetall has filed a complaint.
rad with ats
2023-05-07 19:51:43
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