Austria is torn over age-old question of neutrality and NATO

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Key political figures in historically neutral Austria have reignited a debate about the country’s future relationship with NATO and whether Vienna might be better off joining the alliance.

The renewed public debate follows comments made by the country’s foreign minister, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, to the German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag .

“There is currently no majority in parliament or among the population in favor of joining NATO,” Meinl-Reisinger said, “but such a debate could still be very productive.” She noted that “neutrality alone does not protect us.”

The comments sparked fierce outrage from parts of the political spectrum in Vienna. Gallup polling from last year – two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – showed that less than a quarter of Austrians were in favor of joining NATO, while 74% supported maintaining the country’s “everlasting neutrality,” which has been enshrined in the country’s constitution since its independence from Allied occupation forces in 1955.

Especially the extreme-right Austrian Freedom Party, which has close ties to Russia and President Vladimir Putin personally, clapped back hard, saying in an urgent parliamentary inquiry that Meinl-Reisinger was acting “as an extended arm of the Brussels armaments agenda.” Members of the Freedom Party have been critical of European defense integration and of the Western effort to support Ukraine in its fight against the full-scale Russian invasion.

Amid an unprecedented budget crunch and drastic spending cuts in Vienna, defense spending continues to increase year over year.

Meinl-Reisinger, now serving as Austria’s foreign minister, is also the head of one of the three parties making up the ruling coalition in Vienna. Her economic-liberal NEOS party stands out from its coalition partners, the conservative People’s Party and the Social Democrats, for having a much warmer stance on NATO and advocating for a joint European army.

NEOS has also repeatedly urged discussions about the modern-day relevance of Austria’s “everlasting” neutrality, which was implemented at least in part at Soviet urging during the early Cold War. Other parties have shied away from this political hot topic.

A small country like Austria can only defend its interests in a “common and strong Europe,” Meinl-Reisinger told assembled parliamentarians in defense of her foreign policy.

Austria, which is already covered by the EU’s mutual defense clause – a point that Meinl-Reisinger is quick to point out – is part of a vanishing breed in the European Union. Only a handful of EU countries still maintain neutrality, and of them, Austria, with its population of 9 million, is the largest. Finland and Sweden, longtime neutral countries that maintained this policy throughout the entirety of the Cold War, famously dropped it to join NATO in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

In addition to its EU membership, which some view as limiting the country’s neutrality, Austria is also a member of NATO’s Partnership for Peace initiative, coordinating and training alongside the alliance. It also serves as a key transit country for NATO, with more than 3,000 military transports and over 5,000 NATO overflights taking place in 2024.

Time and again, there are public protests for maintaining the country’s neutrality and steering well clear of NATO. A “large demonstration” in Vienna has been announced for October. Many of these protests also criticize Western support for Ukraine.

“It’s not that I want to join NATO with open arms,” Meinl-Reisinger said in the interview with Die Welt am Sonntag . “But we can’t sit back and believe that no one will harm us if we don’t hurt anyone. That would be naive. The world has changed.”

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

荷兰海牙——历史上保持中立的奥地利的一些重要政治人物重新引发了一场关于该国未来与北约关系的辩论，以及维也纳加入北约是否会更好。

此前，该国外交部长贝娅特·梅因尔-雷辛格在接受德国《星期日世界报》采访时发表了评论，引发了新的公众辩论。

“目前议会和民众中都没有多数人支持加入北约，”梅因尔-雷辛格说，“但这样的辩论仍然可能非常富有成效。”她指出，“仅仅保持中立并不能保护我们。”

这些言论在维也纳部分政治人士中引发了强烈愤慨。盖洛普去年进行的民意调查——当时正值俄罗斯入侵乌克兰两年后——显示，不到四分之一的奥地利人赞成加入北约，而74%的人支持维持该国的“永久中立”，这一原则自1955年奥地利摆脱盟军占领独立以来就一直写入该国宪法。

尤其是与俄罗斯及普京总统关系密切的极右翼奥地利自由党，强烈反击，在议会紧急质询中称迈因尔-赖辛格是“布鲁塞尔军备议程的延伸”。自由党成员一直批评欧洲防务一体化以及西方支持乌克兰对抗俄罗斯全面入侵的努力。

在维也纳面临前所未有的预算紧缩和大幅削减开支的情况下，国防开支却逐年增长。

现任奥地利外交部长的迈因尔-雷辛格同时也是维也纳执政联盟三大政党之一的领导人。她领导的经济自由主义政党新奥地利党（NEOS）与联盟伙伴——保守的人民党和社会民主党——截然不同，该党对北约持更为友好的立场，并倡导建立一支欧洲联合军队。

新奥地利社会主义运动党（NEOS）也多次呼吁讨论奥地利“永久”中立政策在当今的意义。奥地利的这一政策至少部分是在冷战初期苏联的敦促下实施的。其他政党则一直回避这一政治热点话题。

迈因尔-雷辛格在为自己的外交政策辩护时告诉聚集的议员们，像奥地利这样的小国只有在“共同而强大的欧洲”中才能捍卫自己的利益。

奥地利已受欧盟共同防御条款的保护——梅因尔-雷辛格对此也很快指出——奥地利在欧盟中属于一个正在消失的群体。目前只有少数欧盟国家仍然保持中立，其中人口900万的奥地利是最大的。芬兰和瑞典这两个长期保持中立的国家，在整个冷战期间都坚持这一政策，但后来分别于2023年和2024年放弃了中立，加入了北约。

除了欧盟成员国身份（一些人认为这限制了奥地利的中立性）之外，奥地利还是北约“和平伙伴关系”倡议的成员，与北约共同进行协调和训练。奥地利也是北约重要的过境国，2024年将有超过3000架次的军事运输和超过5000架次的北约飞越奥地利领空。

民众多次举行抗议活动，要求维护国家中立，远离北约。维也纳已宣布将于10月举行“大型示威游行”。许多抗议活动也批评西方对乌克兰的支持。

“我并不是想张开双臂加入北约，”梅因尔-雷辛格在接受《星期日世界报》采访时表示，“但我们不能坐视不理，以为只要我们不伤害别人，就不会有人伤害我们。那样太天真了。世界已经变了。”

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。