In a wide-ranging interview with Germany’s Die Welt (DW) Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said the country’s historical neutrality should perhaps now be revisited in the face of ongoing Russian aggression.
Austrian neutrality was legally imposed and enshrined in its constitution in 1955 – it forbids Vienna from entering military alliances and the establishment of foreign military bases on its territory.
This was insisted upon by the Soviet Union in exchange for an end to post-WWII allied occupation and a promise by the four allied powers, the US, UK, France and the USSR, to protect the future integrity and inviolability of Austrian territory. These promises havein echoes of the increasingly contentious Budapest Memorandum, which supposedly offered guarantees to Ukraine in return for giving up its nuclear weapons.
Asked if she supported the call by Emil Brix, director of Vienna’s Diplomatic Academy, for Austria to seek NATO membership she said, “One thing is clear: neutrality alone will not protect us. What protects Austria against the backdrop of an increasingly uncertain global security situation and an increasingly aggressive Russia is investment in our own defense capabilities, and also in partnerships.”
She said that there has already been a growing change among traditionally neutral European countries following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – this was likely a reference to Finland and Sweden who went the whole way, abandoned decades of neutrality to join the NATO alliance.
She went on to add: “While there is currently no majority in parliament or among the population [of Austria] for NATO membership, such a debate can nevertheless be very fruitful… we can’t sit back and say: If we don’t hurt anyone, no one will hurt us – that would be naive.”
Meinl-Reisinger went on to point out that since becoming a member of the European Union and joining NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) in 1995, Austria had already altered the historical understanding of neutrality by playing its part in military missions needed to ensure the country and the continent’s security.
In February NATO and Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) recognized Austria’s 30-year contribution to NATO multinational military missions within the PfP. Austria’s representative to JFCBS, Col. Ernst Orter, said that Vienna’s troops had contributed to EU/NATO-led operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He added that Austrian contingents continue to participate in joint exercises and operational planning with the alliances.
“At some point, the coffins will pile up in Russia.”
Asked about the prospects for a ceasefire in Ukraine, Meinl-Reisinger said it was obvious that Ukraine wants peace, Russia doesn’t.
She said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had failed to respond to the offer to “hand over Crimea and several eastern regions to him on a silver platter,” made by US President Donald Trump. She believes that Putin knows he’s running out of time – his military continues to suffer enormous losses, and he faces a disastrous economic situation – that’s the reason why he is now waging the war with such brutal intensity. “But at some point,” she said, “the coffins will pile up in Russia and leave him no choice.”
Two weeks ago, Finnish President Alexander Stubb told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald that Russia’s so-called special military operation, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, had shown Putin to be “a strategic fool and a military failure.”Rather than weakening the NATO alliance Stubb said Russia’s aggression had the opposite effect – NATO’s cohesion had never been stronger and Moscow’s border with the alliance members had doubled. Explaining Finland’s decision to accede he said, “Being outside of NATO would be like being naked, outdoors, in minus 20 degrees.”
Could Austrians come to the same conclusion as Putin continues his relentless war on Kyiv and as fears that he could threaten Europe as a whole grow?