In the first half, the Swiss merchants sold nearly 415 million francs of assets abroad. This is 87 million more than a year ago, according to a statistic of the Federal Customs Administration.
The arms industry is well on track to reach the record level set last year to 873 million. This was notably driven by the sale of aircraft Pilatus United Arab Emirates.
The second installment of this contract still inflates the figures for the first six months of this year. With approximately 132 million export to the UAE, the country ranks second foreign destinations. Germany leads the standings with shopping for a little over 146 million.
Among the major buyers, there is also Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Romania, Saudi Arabia and India have acquired several million properties each. To a lesser extent, the arms were supplied in Qatar, Oman, Jordan and Brunei.
Restrictive policy
Unlike previous years, however it has not been delivered equipment to Egypt or Israel. Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, Switzerland has been a licensing policy more restrictive, said Simon Plüss, head of the Export Controls / Equipment war in State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
According to him, the matter authorizations are particularly sparse for small arms. SECO has however been less severe for air defense and ammunition. By design and for economic reasons, these weapons are not able to be used against the civilian population, estimated SECO.
We still do not know how grenades produced in Switzerland may have landed in the hands of Syrian rebels. Following press articles on this subject, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, who have purchased these weapons initially, have established a joint investigative commission.
The latter work is not completed, Plüss Simon refused to comment on new information revealed by the media. The show "Rundschau" of the Swiss television SF advanced Wednesday that grenades would arrive in Syria through Jordan and Turkey.
Asian Defence News
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