Ignazio Cassis (61) did it. On Thursday, the United Nations gave the green light for Swiss membership of the UN Security Council. After the Biden-Putin summit in Geneva, the Foreign Minister can once again celebrate a political success. He lets the constant criticism of him, which can be heard from the left, the right or from within his own ranks, fade for a moment.
While the advocates of the adventure cheer, nervousness reigns behind the scenes. Because the Swiss diplomats are breaking new ground when they take a seat on the powerful body for two years on January 1, 2023. That’s why Cassis’ people recently had numerous discussions with colleagues from countries such as Ireland and Norway about their experiences from inside the organ.
Two Swiss EDA representatives told SonntagsBlick that there were two pitfalls in particular. First, there are the pressure tests.
peer pressure
From day one, the delegation will probably have to defend itself against massive influence exerted by other members of the Security Council. Of the five veto powers in the body, these are apparently not primarily China and Russia, but the three “like-minded states”: the USA, Great Britain and France.
What is certain is that head of mission Pascale Baeriswyl (54) and her 25-strong team will constantly be forced to make references to positions. Before the eyes of the world, the Security Council holds around 800 meetings a year – two to three a day – of which 150 are held in the large hall with its famous horseshoe formation. It gets down to business when resolutions are voted on, which happens around fifty to seventy times a year. These are decisions that are binding under international law and are guaranteed to trigger protests somewhere around the world.
The other major challenge is the relationship between the emissaries in New York and their government. The FDFA knows that the Norwegians acted very autonomously and only had to iron out a divergence with Oslo in extremely rare cases.
Switzerland is already taking a position
Cassis, on the other hand, seems to want to play it safe with his state secretary and her employees: his administration has developed a traffic light system that is intended to regulate cooperation easily.
Level green relates to unproblematic decisions of a fundamental nature that the delegation can make itself. Orange level includes transactions where the “New Yorkers” need the okay from Bern. Stage red are the sensitive matters where the Federal Council as a whole takes the helm. A war like that in Ukraine on February 24 is conceivable.
Nervousness? uncharted territory? Flavio Milan, head of UN coordination in the foreign department, describes the situation in a more relaxed manner on request: “The mechanism basically works no differently than in other political organs of the UN, such as the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, where the process has been well established for years.” In addition, Switzerland, as a non-member of the Security Council, is constantly taking a stand. “Switzerland’s positions are generally known,” says Milan, so from that perspective it’s “nothing fundamentally new”.
«Instructions from Bern for all transactions»
So far, the principle that has applied between Switzerland and its UN outpost is that a so-called request for instructions is sent to Bern before every decision is made. All the responsible administrative bodies are involved there before the mission in New York receives its instructions from the federal city.
According to Milan, this regime also applies to the time in the Security Council. “The delegation in New York will never act completely independently,” he emphasizes. “Instructions are sent from Bern for all transactions.”
With regard to the traffic light system, he points to a decision from November when the Federal Council defined the cases in which it would take over the helm as a whole. This should happen in three situations: when the departments disagree, when the course is to be set with far-reaching consequences, such as in the case of a military intervention, and when an issue is of great relevance to domestic politics.
The question remains how Cassis will represent the maneuvers of his people in New York in front of Parliament in the Federal Palace. The heated neutrality debate surrounding arms deliveries to Ukraine could only have been the beginning.
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