Austria's Chancellor, Wolfgang Schuessel, has sent out Strong
Signals that he is Ready to Drop the Country's Traditional Neutrality
and Bring it into NATO
05 Nov 01
BBC News
Mr Schuessel said that he expected a "large circle" of countries
would be invited to join at next year's Nato summit meeting in Prague
and said that Austria was considering membership "carefully".
Mr Schuessel has long been an advocate of ditching Austria's
neutral status - a legacy of its Cold War position sandwiched between
East and West.
But neutrality is considered an essential part of Austrian national
identity and moves to drop it meet strong opposition.
National identity
"In some [media opinion] neutrality is portrayed as Austria's
raison d'etre... as our identity itself. But our identity amounts to
much more and we must be able to express that," Mr Schuessel told
Profil magazine on his return from a meeting with US President George
W Bush where he said Austria's strategic position was raised.
Mr Schuessel stirred controversy on Austria's national day last
month, saying, "the old cliches - Lippizaner, Mozart chocolate balls
and neutrality - are no longer applicable in the complex reality of
the 21st Century". He said that Austria's entry into the European
Union in 1995 had been "a decisive step which superseded neutrality".
The process of joining Nato was likely to be shorter than the 20-year
wrangling over EU membership, but there should be no pressure, he
added.
Public suspicion
The future role of Nato, Mr Schuessel predicted, would be decisive
in considering membership.
"[The alliance] will become a kind of security association - rather
like the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe," he
said.
Closer ties with Nato were high on the agenda when Mr Schuessel's
conservative People's Party entered government with the far-right
Freedom Party.
But public opinion in Austria is still suspicious of Nato and there
was strong opposition to the bombing campaign in Kosovo. Neutrality
was enshrined in Austria's constitution at the end of World War II by
the allied occupying forces. With the fall of the Soviet Union its
importance as a buffer zone decreased but, on a recent trip to Vienna,
President Vladimir Putin made it clear he would oppose any Nato
enlargement to include Austria.
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