![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1e56fba5e6802b6b4dd5094d83ffae61da8e4f6e-91942656.jpg\")
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Former Prime Minister Bildt calls Switzerland a \u2018free rider\u2019 in NATO <\/p>\n
Keystone-SDA <\/p>\n
Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt has described Switzerland as a \u201cfree rider\u201d on NATO. Switzerland and Austria are surrounded by NATO member states and would be considerably more vulnerable without the alliance, Bildt said in an interview with the Tamedia group.\n<\/p>\n
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August 24, 2026 – 10:06\n<\/p>\n
There is hardly any room left in today\u2019s Europe for neutral and non-aligned states, particularly in the hear of Europe, said Bildt. \u201cThe reasons that once led Switzerland to neutrality have disappeared.\u201d <\/p>\n
+ Switzerland and NATO: just flirting or the start of a wild marriage?<\/a><\/p>\n Bildt also expressed criticism of the neutrality initiative, which Switzerland will vote on in September. \u201cWe should not tie our own hands for the future,\u201d he said. If the initiative were to be approved, it would weaken Switzerland\u2019s position, \u201cbecause it would be less flexible and credible in its response to the next crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n Bildt also defended Switzerland\u2019s adoption of the EU sanctions against Russia. Had it not done so, it would be regarded as an outsider in Europe, alongside Serbia.<\/p>\n Sweden had abandoned its decades-long policy of non-alignment following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and joined NATO in 2024.<\/p>\n Bildt served as Swedish Prime Minister from 1991 to 1994 and later as Foreign Minister. He is now vice-president of the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations.<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Neutrality\n <\/p>\n How the neutrality initiative could affect Swiss policy <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Nov 18, 2025 <\/p>\n The neutrality initiative seeks to incorporate a strict interpretation of Swiss neutrality in the federal constitution. What would this mean for Switzerland\u2019s foreign and security policy? <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: How the neutrality initiative could affect Swiss policy + How we produce English news<\/a> Articles in this story <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Prime Minister Bildt calls Switzerland a \u2018free rider\u2019 in NATO Keystone-SDA Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[75,1617,6928,961,775,1007,50,1008],"class_list":["post-11718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-article","tag-beat-foreign-affairs","tag-beat-swiss-diplomacy","tag-conflict","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-latest-news","tag-politics","tag-production-type-deepl-autotranslation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Neutrality](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/540968120_highres.jpg\")
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Translated from German, reviewed by an\u00a0English Department<\/a> journalist.\u00a0<\/p>\n