State-owned armament company Ruag has submitted an official export request to sell the Leopard 1 tanks to a German company, which wants to forward them on to Ukraine. German arms group Rheinmetall is interested in buying the vehicles in order to pass them on to Kyiv, a Ruag spokeswoman told SRF public radio on Thursday. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) confirmed to SRF that it had received the export request, but did not provide further information. Defense Minister Viola Amherd said in parliament in mid-March that Seco had rejected a preliminary demand from Ruag to re-sell the tanks, referring to the strict Swiss weapons exports rules based on the country’s neutrality. + Read more: the historic ties between neutrality and commerce However, Amherd has also previously hinted that once Switzerland’s own military needs are covered, there could be “a certain number of tanks that we will not need and that we can make available [to European partners] if parliament decl
State-owned armament company Ruag has submitted an official export request to sell the Leopard 1 tanks to a German company, which wants to forward them on to Ukraine. German arms group Rheinmetall is interested in buying the vehicles in order to pass them on to Kyiv, a Ruag spokeswoman told SRF public radio on Thursday. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) confirmed to SRF that it had received the export request, but did not provide further information. Defense Minister Viola Amherd said in parliament in mid-March that Seco had rejected a preliminary demand from Ruag to re-sell the tanks, referring to the strict Swiss weapons exports rules based on the country’s neutrality. + Read more: the historic ties between neutrality and commerce However, Amherd has also previously hinted that once Switzerland’s own military needs are covered, there could be “a certain number of tanks that we will not need and that we can make available [to European partners] if parliament decl