Austria will not reconsider its policy of neutrality, joining NATO is not on the agenda. This was stated by the Chancellor of the Republic, Christian Stocker, in an interview with the ORF television channel.
“We are a neutral country, neutrality is not in question, joining NATO is not a topic for discussion“, he said in response to a journalist's request to comment on the words of the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev that Russia has taken countermeasures to military threats related to the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, and will not make an exception if Austria joins the alliance.
On August 30, the leader of the largest opposition party in Austria, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), Herbert Kickl, called the statements of the head of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, about the need to review the constitutional principle of eternal neutrality dangerous and very unreasonable.
Earlier, upon arriving at an informal meeting of foreign EU ministers in Copenhagen, Meinl-Reisinger stated that adherence to the constitutional principle of perpetual neutrality was not enough to protect Austria from the alleged threat coming from Russia.