Defense Green light for NATO liaison office in Geneva

NATO is opening a multilateral liaison office in Geneva for the international and non-governmental organizations based there. The Federal Council had given its approval for this and the agreement was signed on Monday.

In Bern, the head of the Directorate of International Law at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), Franz Perrez, and John Swords, Legal Advisor and Director of the Legal Affairs Office of NATO, signed an agreement regulating the legal status of the liaison office, as the Federal Council announced on Monday.

Switzerland is facilitating the opening of the liaison office as part of its role as host state. The signed host state agreement regulates, among other things, the legal status of the liaison office as well as privileges and immunities, the Federal Council announced.

The office in Geneva, which has not yet started work, as a FDFA spokesperson told the Keystone-SDA news agency, is the third such NATO liaison office at a UN headquarters after New York and Vienna. Of the four UN headquarters worldwide, only Nairobi is therefore not also the location of a liaison office of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) defence alliance.

SDA