Up to 2,000 troops to secure OSCE meeting in Lugano

The Swiss army will be able to deploy up to 2,000 soldiers in Ticino to help secure the OSCE Ministerial Council, which will take place in Lugano on 3 and 4 December. On Friday, the Federal Council approved this subsidiary support, which will complement the measures put in place by the cantonal authorities.

The soldiers will handle protection, surveillance and aerial reconnaissance, as well as transport and logistics. Their task is to complement, not replace, the measures already planned by the canton of Ticino.

For the same reason, a temporary airspace restriction will be introduced around Lugano. Within a radius of 46 kilometres around the city, flying will be banned from Monday 30 November 2026 at 7am to Friday 4 December 2026 at 11.59pm. The ban will apply to visual flight traffic, non-commercial instrument flight traffic and drones.

A presidency that ends in Lugano

The Ministerial Council is the OSCE's central decision-making body. It brings together the foreign ministers of the organisation's 57 participating states and has authority over all other bodies, with the exception of the Summit. Although it is a negotiating body, it often limits itself to approving texts already agreed by the Permanent Council or the Forum for Security Cooperation.

Switzerland is a founding member of the OSCE: it took part in the 1973 CSCE negotiations and signed the Helsinki Final Act in 1975. Having already chaired the organisation in 1996 and 2014, it holds the presidency for the third time since 1 January 2026, with Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis serving as "Chairperson-in-Office". The Swiss presidency has set five priorities for this year: the Helsinki principles for lasting peace, inclusive multilateral diplomacy, anticipating emerging technologies, democracy, the rule of law and human rights, and the OSCE's capacity to act.

The Lugano meeting, the 33rd session of the Ministerial Council, will close Switzerland's presidency year, as is traditional for each rotating presidency. The Federal Council has classified the meeting as an extraordinary event under the law on measures to safeguard internal security. The Confederation will cover 80% of the security costs incurred by the Ticino authorities.