On March 15, 2024, the Swiss Federal Council decided that Switzerland would seek to participate in the State Partnership Program (SPP), which is managed by the U.S. National Guard Bureau, in order to further military cooperation between Switzerland and the United States.

Under this program, participating countries are partnered with a specific State’s National Guard, allowing for close cooperation and encouraging people-to-people ties. Over a hundred countries are already part of the SPP, 25 of which are in Europe. International cooperation is particularly important with regard to enhancing defense capabilities as well as interoperability, without entering into any obligations, dependencies or constraints that would be incompatible with neutrality.

The U.S. National Guard and the Swiss Armed Forces have many common features in terms of missions, structure, and resources. Indeed, both are committed to support civil authorities in times of crisis, uphold strong community ties and rely on reserve troops.

The content of the program and the scope of cooperation are largely determined by the country that wishes to join the partnership and can therefore be tailored specifically to the needs of Switzerland and its armed forces. This scalable approach, which is a hallmark of the SPP, makes the program a forward-looking and unique opportunity for collaboration to the Swiss Armed Forces. Areas where Switzerland is especially interested in strengthening cooperation include the exchange of staff officers, mentoring by National Guard representatives on Swiss operational procedures and exercises, joint training of specialists in the areas of cyber defense, mountain warfare and rescue as well as CBRN-defense and demining.

The press release by the Federal Council can be found here.