Austrian Chancellor rules out joining NATO

Austria will continue to observe the principle of neutrality and stay outside the NATO military bloc. This was announced on September 1 by the country's federal chancellor Christian Stoker in an interview with the ORF TV channel.

"We are a neutral country, neutrality is not questioned, joining NATO is not a topic for discussion," he said.

"There is no sign of any change in the bellicose rhetoric towards Moscow"

Russian Ambassador to Austria Dmitry Lyubinsky — on attempts to rewrite history, the contribution of the Red Army to the liberation of Vienna and the state of bilateral relations

Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said on July 26 that Austria could abandon its neutrality towards Russia and join NATO. According to the minister, at the moment there is no majority in the country in favor of joining NATO. However, despite this, such debates can be fruitful.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in turn, called Meinl-Reisinger's statements an insult to the Austrians. According to her, it has become the norm for the political leadership of Austria and the European Union (EU) countries to disregard the opinion of their population.

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