Protective shield despite neutrality
Austria wants to join “Sky Shield” air defense
07/01/2023 8:21 p.m
Citing its neutrality, Austria refuses European security guarantees to Ukraine. However, the government in Vienna itself is seeking protection from European partners: Chancellor Nehammer wants to bring Austria under the “Sky Shield” air defense system initiated by Germany.
Neutral Austria plans to join Germany’s “Sky Shield” project to build a better European air defense system. This was announced by Chancellor Karl Nehammer. “The threat situation has increased massively as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine,” the conservative politician explains the ongoing accession negotiations. Austria must therefore protect itself against drone and rocket attacks together with other European countries.
The “European Sky Shield Initiative” initiated by Germany is intended to help close gaps in the current NATO protective shield for Europe. There are deficits, for example, in the area of ​​ballistic missiles, which reach great heights on their trajectory, but also in the defense against drones and cruise missiles. More than a dozen European countries have already joined the project.
Austria positions itself as a militarily neutral state. This status is not endangered by joining the “Sky Shield”, said Nehammer and Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner in a joint statement. “It’s about participation in a protective shield that serves to avert danger,” they argued.
Referring to their own neutrality, Austria, as well as Ireland and Malta, only blocked far-reaching security guarantees from the European Union for Ukraine on Thursday. “It is clear to us, as neutral states, that they cannot exist like this,” said Nehammer in Brussels. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairwoman of the defense committee in the Bundestag, called the procedure “pathetic”since Nehammer “recently in Kiev himself, with crocodile tears, criticized Russia’s brutal war crimes and promised support for Ukraine”.