The Swiss Confederation sits, for the first time, to the UN executive body. A perilous exercise for a country little focused on diplomatic exposure.
by Serge Enderlin (Geneva, Correspondence)
To his left, Lana Nusseibeh, representative of the United Arab Emirates. To his right, Vassili Nebenzia, the man of Moscow, armed with his veto. Since the 1 er January, Pascale Baeriswyl, 54, ambassador of Switzerland to the United Nations (UN), in New York, has the formidable honor of sitting on the famous iron horseshoe table , around which representatives of the member countries (permanent and non -permanent) of the UN Security Council meet, Saint des Saints de Multilateralism.
Expected and hoped for years by Bern, the participation for two years in this cenacle of international affairs comes twenty years after the late membership of Switzerland in the UN, in 2002. The moment is certainly “historic” for Berne, as the Diplomats of the Confederation repeat these days; He is especially difficult. Never since 1945 a high intensity war on the European continent – like the one that ravages Ukraine since February 24, 2022 – had disrupted the great balances of collective security architecture, while, moreover, The shadow of Beijing on Taiwan continues to extend.
Faced with this world in convulsions, the words of the Swiss ambassador during the official induction ceremony of the new members seemed almost candid: “We need the support of young people and women to ensure lasting peace ( …). We will work in a spirit of shared responsibility, with deep humility. “Switzerland will exercise the rotating presidency of the Security Council in May 2023 and in October 2024. It intends to assert its strong and long tradition in democratic matters and Respect for the right of peoples to “build bridges” between countries.
Paradox, this jump into the big overall bath takes place while Swiss diplomacy comes out of a rather rough 2022 year. First, the relations between Bern and his relatives of European neighbors have only rarely been so warm. In May 2021, the unilateral rupture by Switzerland negotiations with the European Commission to refound the partnership between Bern and the twenty-seven disconcerted its main partners. A gesture still largely misunderstood in Paris as in Berlin. “If at least we knew what the Swiss now have behind their heads, but for two years, nothing is moving,” confides a European diplomat stationed in Bern, who evokes the current “vegetative state” of the relations between the Confederation And the European Union, condemned to remain in lethargy at least until the Swiss legislative elections, in October.
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