I would just like to add that politico is part of Axel Springer SE and therefore trash.
Why join and contribute when you can be a leech? Also, Daddy putin would not like one of its oblasts joining
Austria is required by its constitution to be neutral. This neutrality was forced on them by the Soviet union, which isn't around any more, but there is currently no political will to change this.
IIRC the issue is that NATO doesn't necessarily want Austria since their institutions are heavily infiltrated by Russian spies?
Infiltrated by Russian spies suggests, that this is not part of the countries policy. But every information that gets to Austrian intelligence ends up in Russia and Austrian intelligence helps European high profile criminals escape to Russia.
The truth is that Austria's intelligence community is split. Various factions within the intelligence agencies and authorities proxy-fighting with each other resulted in a raid on the intelligence service, anonymous accusations and the becoming public of various scandals. But it's obvious that not the whole intelligence apparatus is in the Russians' pockets.
Exactly zero people studied history in this channel. It explains a lot.
No, it's not. Austria won't ever join NATO bar being directly attacked themselves. If the other EU countries can finally get around to strengthen european military cooperation, Austria will be in that. But NATO is not an option.
When someone wants to invade Austria we should give them the railway for a small fee.
Unfortunately, I don't see any chance for that. The right wing nut job party is set to win the next elections and it is likely that the "moderate" party will form a coalition with them. Even suggesting to think about joining NATO at some point in the far future, would be political suicide.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Meanwhile, in May, the previously neutral Sweden and Finland formally submitted applications to join NATO; and there are signs that Turkey and Hungary — who have been holding up the ratification process — may now be softening their objections to this Scandinavian surge.
Yes, it did sign onto the European Union’s sanctions against Russia and its financial aid regime in support of Ukraine, but it has opted out of any military participation, citing its constitutionally anchored “permanent neutrality” — a stance that is no longer feasible.
Austrian capital flowed east, Eastern European labor came west, and throughout the decade, the country became a natural destination for refugees fleeing former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević’s genocidal war.
In 1995, Austria then joined the EU along with Sweden and Finland and signed up to NATO’s Partnership for Peace — members of its armed forces still participate in the peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina today.
Yet, despite all this, Austria continues to cling to its official permanent neutrality as if the face-off between Europe’s former military blocs — NATO and the Warsaw Pact — were still ongoing and as though it isn’t an EU member.
No longer a border state, Austria is almost fully surrounded by EU and NATO members — Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy.
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No longer a border state, Austria is almost fully surrounded by EU and NATO members — Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy.
This reads a bit like a threat, aka Anschluss 2.0
Also just a fact tbf.
TIL Austria is not in NATO.
balancing the interests of Russia and the West, while also being part of the West, is no longer morally or politically tenable
NATO is no 'the west' and vice versa.
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