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When Iran and the US or Ukraine and Russia come to Geneva for talks, Gabriel L\u00fcchinger pulls the strings. <\/p>\n
Keystone \/ Peter Schneider <\/p>\n
Switzerland is navigating a world for which it is hardly suited any more. How does it keep in touch? The government relies on the skills of top diplomat Gabriel L\u00fcchinger. A portrait.\n<\/p>\n
This content was published on <\/p>\n
February 17, 2026 – 09:30\n<\/p>\n
Does anyone still need Switzerland? Its neutrality is controversial at home and in need of explanation abroad. \u201cThe world today is no longer a sedate municipal assembly, but a playground without supervision,\u201d according to former Swiss Chancellor Walter Thurnherr. \u201cPeople are fighting with their elbows out \u2013 and that\u2019s a painful adjustment for Switzerland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Small states in particular are dependent on fair play and rules. \u201cWe\u2019re more like the little second-graders in this playground,\u201d Thurnherr told the Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung. \u201cBut there are also the big sixth-graders, and if we\u2019re not careful, a sixth-grader will smack us.\u201d That\u2019s why Switzerland might have to coordinate with the fourth-graders, he said.<\/p>\n
Gabriel L\u00fcchinger\u2019s job is to do this deal. The 49-year-old is the top Swiss diplomat, who consistently acts in the background.<\/p>\n
Officially, L\u00fcchinger heads the security division of the Swiss foreign ministry. In other countries, this position is known as national security adviser.<\/p>\n
In reality, however, he has become the silent standard-bearer of Swiss multilateralism. He talks to everyone. And he always does so discreetly; he avoids media contacts.<\/p>\n
Talks on Iran and Ukraine in Geneva <\/p>\n
Geneva takes centre stage this week. On Tuesday, there will be further negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, with the US also taking part. The nuclear talks between the US and Iran will continue on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Gabriel L\u00fcchinger has been in intensive dialogue with Iran and the US as well as with Russia and Ukraine in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
The fact that the meetings are taking place in Geneva shows that the key players have confidence in neutral Switzerland, Thomas Greminger told SRF. Greminger is a Swiss diplomat and director of the Centre for Security Policy in Geneva. \u201cWe still need these neutrals who are able to provide such platforms for dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
L\u00fcchinger last gave an interview in 2024, when he organised the Swiss peace conference for Ukraine at the B\u00fcrgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne. Today, a foreign ministry spokesperson says L\u00fcchinger\u2019s list of interview requests is too long and that there is no point in asking him again.<\/p>\n
\u2018Unfamiliar tasks\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cL\u00fcchinger is a hinge. He seems inconspicuous, but he enjoys a great deal of trust everywhere,\u201d says one foreign policy expert about this job.<\/p>\n
Parliamentarian Josef Dittli, also a foreign policy expert, adds: \u201cHe has an incredibly high level of social competence. He is highly intelligent \u2013 and he always has time to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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L\u00fcchinger with Iranian security advisor Ali Larijani in Tehran in 2025. <\/p>\n
x.com <\/p>\n
Other foreign policy experts describe L\u00fcchinger as a \u201cdecent man with clear thoughts, who knows his role and fulfils his orders\u201d, as \u201ccalm and balanced\u201d. They even call him a \u201cperfect example of a diplomat\u201d and a \u201cman for all occasions\u201d. There is no criticism.<\/p>\n
L\u00fcchinger fills a role that Switzerland did not envisage \u2013 but needs. Parliamentarian and foreign policy expert Roland B\u00fcchel speaks of the \u201cnew, unfamiliar tasks\u201d that the government is entrusting him with.<\/p>\n
The craft of good offices<\/p>\n
L\u00fcchinger is everywhere but never in the limelight. When the Russian regime urges Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis to kowtow in Moscow \u2013 to lay a wreath at the grave of the unknown Russian soldier \u2013 L\u00fcchinger is waiting by the limousine.<\/p>\n
He flies economy class to Washington for customs talks. He travels to Iran, China and the Middle East. He always informs all those who cannot be there about anything that might interest them \u2013 unsolicited, accurately and without any vested interests.<\/p>\n
This is the craft of the good offices. For a long time, multilateralism was the net that carried Switzerland through time in the international network. Now it is falling apart. But Switzerland remains dependent on the world \u2013 if only because of its export economy.<\/p>\n
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Customs talks in Washington in 2025: Gabriel L\u00fcchinger walks behind Swiss Economics Minister Guy Parmelin and President Karin Keller-Sutter. <\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. <\/p>\n
When US President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs of 39% in 2025, L\u00fcchinger became a special envoy for the US. Where complexity turns into excessive demands, he comes into action.<\/p>\n
The rightwing Swiss People\u2019s Party elected him as Secretary General in 2016. In 2018, he became an advisor to Economics Minister Guy Parmelin. In 2022, the foreign ministry called him in when the Russian attack on Ukraine led to Switzerland having to declare its neutrality to its head-shaking partner countries.<\/p>\n
L\u00fcchinger has long been regarded as Switzerland\u2019s best-connected diplomat. He cultivates contacts for Switzerland, which is becoming more difficult at government level because showcase diplomacy has become the new normal. And because the fifth and sixth graders play their games among themselves in the schoolyard.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, everything is always changing in Switzerland: the federal presidency every year, the embassy posts every four years. For foreign countries, the top officials and the few Swiss state secretaries have always been the most stable contacts. They will still be there after the next election.<\/p>\n
The Ukraine Peace Conference on the B\u00fcrgenstock in 2024, an extremely ambitious project by Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, laid the foundation for L\u00fcchinger\u2019s networking. While other nations were supplying weapons to Ukraine and closing ranks, Switzerland was withholding its weapons \u2013 and was in danger of being sidelined. It took a liberating blow to carry Switzerland\u2019s traditional role into the new geopolitical situation.<\/p>\n
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Gabriel L\u00fcchinger in conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the summit on peace in Ukraine at the B\u00fcrgenstock resort in 2024. <\/p>\n
Keystone \/ Michael Buholzer <\/p>\n
Cassis wanted to bring as many \u2013 important \u2013 heads of state to Switzerland as possible: a difficult task. L\u00fcchinger operated at his own level. He lobbied in the circle of national security advisors, all people with a direct line to the government. They know each other from conferences. They tend to think operationally rather than politically, which often simplifies things.<\/p>\n
L\u00fcchinger also knew about the capacities of the Swiss foreign network \u2013 he used them strategically. \u201cWe sent all the embassies around the world into action with the request to approach the national security advisors,\u201d he told Swiss public radio SRF.<\/p>\n
\u2018Corrupt and undemocratic\u2019 EU<\/p>\n
L\u00fcchinger, the son of a lawyer, studied law in Bern. At the age of 22, he stood as a parliamentarian for the youth section of the Swiss People\u2019s Party. In a letter to a newspaper in 1999 he came out against the EU: \u201cI am not prepared to renounce our openness to the world just to belong to an organisation that is corrupt and undemocratic.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued his studies in Helsinki, followed later by studies in international relations in Sweden. Back in Switzerland, he worked for the People\u2019s Party and in the defence ministry. He was a colonel in the army and became military attach\u00e9 at the Swiss embassies in Abu Dhabi and Cairo.<\/p>\n
He stayed in the Arab world for six years, met his wife, a Jordanian, and was inspired by the Arab Spring. \u201cThe young people\u2019s fight for democracy had a strong influence on me,\u201d he said later.<\/p>\n
The People\u2019s Party then contacted him and lured him back to Switzerland in 2016 with the job of General Secretary. He became a close confidant of the party president, now Federal Councillor Albert R\u00f6sti. Shortly afterwards, he became a personal advisor to Guy Parmelin.<\/p>\n
He was later considered for the post of Federal Chancellor, but he was in the wrong party for the job. He was also recommended as head of the Swiss intelligence service.<\/p>\n
However, L\u00fcchinger was drawn to diplomacy. He passed the stringent selection procedures of the foreign ministry. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis appointed him head of security. This was a skilful move, as Cassis and his diplomatic corps were under constant attack from the People\u2019s Party.<\/p>\n
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Strategically astute appointment: Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis with Gabriel L\u00fcchinger, <\/p>\n
Keystone \/ Eda \/ Pool \/ Alessandro Della Valle <\/p>\n
This party is fundamentally suspicious of cosmopolitanism. To stop the criticism, a cosmopolitan shooting star from the People\u2019s Party is the ideal candidate. L\u00fcchinger himself says of the job in 2024: \u201cI\u2019m exactly where I belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Failure is part of the job<\/p>\n
But can this man also fail? Absolutely: China, the only power with leverage at the time, was absent from the Ukraine conference on the B\u00fcrgenstock. Switzerland still lacks a binding agreement on US tariffs and the dossier is once again being managed by the economics ministry.<\/p>\n
But glamour is not a criterion in L\u00fcchinger\u2019s world. He was most recently seen in Moscow with Cassis. On behalf of the OSCE, they tried to bring Russia back into an international dialogue. Expectations were low; Cassis was put on the spot and the mission was criticised internationally.<\/p>\n
Shortly beforehand, the Iranian regime had gone on the rampage against its own population. L\u00fcchinger was in contact with Ali Larijani, the regime\u2019s security adviser and one of religious leader Ali Khamenei\u2019s closest confidants. He made phone calls. The regime continued to rage unperturbed. It was like everything L\u00fcchinger does: worth a try.<\/p>\n
Edited by Marc Leutenegger. Translated from German by AI\/ts<\/p>\n
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