Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin and US President Donald Trump at the WEF in Davos.Image: keystone
April 2, 2026, 8:00 a.mApril 2, 2026, 8:00 a.m
The USA has recently put additional pressure on Switzerland for financial reasons. This is what the newspapers report Tamediawhich rely on two sources.
Specifically, this is about an arms fund: the USA does not want it to fall below a certain level of liquidity. The Trump administration is threatening Switzerland with consequences if this happens. This is said to have caused great nervousness in Switzerland: its dependence on the USA is great – for example because of the necessary spare parts for the F/A-18.
Switzerland needs F/A-18 spare parts from the USA.Image: KEYSTONE
For this reason, Switzerland decided to follow the demands of the USA. As Armasuisse told the Tamedia newspapers, a “low double-digit million amount” was paid into the fund in question.
The payment made is not an unplanned transfer. It’s about money that was budgeted to pay for the F-35 procurement. However, this would actually not have been due until the summer.
USA circumvented Patriot payment freeze
With this fund, the USA has already managed to circumvent a planned Swiss payment freeze. The Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) had actually planned to suspend payments for the Patriot air defense system, the delivery of which was delayed due to the current security situation. How SRF revealed, this plan was ineffective.
Since then, the USA has been using Swiss money for the F-35 fighter jets – precisely through the fund in question. The US authorities maintain a fund for all Swiss arms purchases. If money is missing from a project, money from another project is allowed to be used. Among other things, for the Patriotsfor which funds were passed on to manufacturer Raytheon.
The delivery problems in the USA are also occupying Swiss politics this week. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Martin Pfister told the media that that cutting off Patriot deliveries was “an option”.. However, he continues to assume that Switzerland will get these systems. What consequences a termination of the exercise would have – for example for payments already made – remains unclear. (dab)