Austria’s new foreign minister has confirmed that the country will adhere to its constitutional neutrality following the newly announced European Union defence plans.
“For us the neutrality demanded by the Constitution clearly applies,” Beate Meinl-Reisinger said on March 7 during her first foreign visit in Brussels. There she met European Commission Foreign Affairs Representative Kaja Kallas and Internal Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner.
Meinl-Reisinger welcomed the EC’s €800 billion proposal unveiled by the body’s President Ursula von der Leyen on March 4 to boost Europe’s defence spending.
“We must do everything to strengthen Europe’s autonomy. Regrettably in times like these this also includes defence capabilities,” Meinl-Reisinger said.
She suggested joint procurement and an emphasis on interoperability as guidelines for the EC’s defence plan that was discussed at a special summit in Brussels.
Despite that, Austria would not change its neutral stance in light of the new European plans, even though “the one has nothing to do with the other”, Meinl-Reising stated.
Austria has been geopolitically neutral since 1955 when the country’s parliament voted in favour of a constitutional law requiring “everlasting neutrality”.
The day of the original vote, October 26, is still an Austrian national holiday. The commitment to stay neutral was a prerequisite for the country to regain its independence – set by the Soviet Union, which had occupied a third of Austria in 1945.
Despite sometimes heated debate on the issue since the fall of the Soviet Union and repeated calls to join NATO, there is currently no political party in Austria that has advocated giving up neutrality.
Meinl-Reisinger did say her country was “standing firmly in solidarity with Ukraine” and announced she had recently spoken with Ukraine’s foreign minister Andryi Sybiha.
“Europe must act decisively and stand on its own feet,” she said with regards to the current US-led negotiations on a ceasefire in Ukraine that have been largely conducted in the absence of the EU.
Ukraine was instrumental for European security, Meinl-Reisinger continued. “That is why we in Austria are insisting on a just and sustainable peace.”
Austria has so far given humanitarian aid but no military support to Ukraine.
Meinl-Reisinger underscored the importance of good transatlantic relationships but remarked that the interests of Europe and Austria in the Ukrainian question differed from those of the US.
“It is better for us to have a seat at the table rather than decisions being taken over our heads with economic and military strength,” she said, adding she saw it as her task to ensure that this strength was created in Europe.
Meinl-Reisinger was appointed as Austria’s foreign minister on March 3 and the 46-year-old mother-of-three is the leader of the small liberal Neos party.
Neos formally joined the government coalition negotiated between Conservatives and Social Democrats as a junior partner in March 2025 in exchange for two ministerial posts.
