Switzerland's quaint, isolationist image has to go, especially in a world changed by the US suicide attacks, the country's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Joseph Deiss said he wanted to sell a more modern Swiss image to the outside world, and to sell a greater role in the outside world to a doubting Swiss population.
"The 11th of September showed not only to the Swiss that we have to be a part of this worldwide solidarity," he said in an interview.
To help do that, the traditional Swiss image had to be updated.
"(We're) still producing very famous cheese, still producing watches and clocks, and (still have) a chocolate industry," Deiss said, but added foreigners should see the neutral Swiss in a greater international role in a more interdependent world.
The Swiss cherish their neutrality and, though Geneva hosts one of two UN headquarters, they are not even UN members.
The government is trying to convince them to change their minds and vote in a March 3 referendum for Switzerland to become a full UN member state.
But Deiss says it won't be easy. Traditionally isolationist voters rejected the proposal in 1986 by three to one.
Deiss, who took up his seat in Switzerland's seven-member government in 1999, says times have changed, especially since the September attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The vote could come down to whether a majority of the country's cantons (states) back the move, which is required as well as a popular majority for the plan to win.
A poll showed 50 percent of people favoured membership, with 33 percent against.
Deiss said it could still be hard to carry most of the cantons, but added^ He said some opposition came from those who feared Switzerland's neutral status might be threatened by winning full UN membership, instead of its current observer status, which it shares only with the Vatican.
He said a yes vote would put Switzerland in a better position to defend its own interests without sacrificing neutrality, especially where humanitarian matters are concerned.
(China Daily November 22, 2001)
