While Russia is destroying Ukraine, Austria pledges to remain impartial

• Austria has no plans to join NATO despite the ongoing Ukraine crisis.
• 80 percent of Austrians support staying out of the Western alliance.
• Neutrality is in the mindset of the Austrian population, says Wolfgang Pusztai.

Europe’s ability to maintain geopolitical neutrality has decreased since February 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Sweden and Finland have abandoned their historical non-alignment in response to the continent’s changing security architecture, and even Switzerland is enlarging its NATO membership.

Despite the continuous conflict, Vienna has no plans to join NATO and continues to be on the fence.Austria, a member of the European Union (EU), collaborates with NATO in a number of ways and has deepened its links to the EU’s security architecture.

In this regard, some commentators see Austria as effectively a free rider, barely making it by on luck while eschewing NATO.

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In Austria, the issue of formally joining NATO  is not seriously debating for nearly six months due to the Ukrainian situation.

Eighty percent of Austrians favour remaining outside the Western alliance, and neutrality is still a popular position among all types of Austrian politics.

The leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO), Pamela Rendi-Wagner, routinely refers to Vienna’s neutrality as “non-negotiable.” On March 7, conservative politician and chancellor Karl Nehammer tweeted that Austrian neutrality is “not up for negotiation.”

The pacifist Green Party and the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) both support neutrality.

According to Wolfgang Pusztai, a former Austrian defence attaché, “neutrality is profoundly in establishment in the attitude of the Austrian citizenry after the horrific experience of two World Wars and the Nazi terror rule.” Austria’s freedom and neutrality are in joining since the 1950s.

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