Why would they join honestly. Austria, together with Switzerland, pretty much enjoy all of NATO's protection by being completely surrounded by NATO members, without having to meet it's demands. Their neutrality would only be a danger if NATO itself declared war on Austria and/or Switzerland.

Austria was extremely lucky after ww2 that the soviets willingly withdrew 10 years later! Unfortunately many coutries in the region were not that lucky.

i served in the Austrian army. Summer we fill Sandbags when the floods come, winter we shovel Snow from Roofs, if it snows to much. we still got a purpose :)

Turkey: "We have no objections against Austria joining NATO" Turkey the same day as Austria applies: "We have NOTHING BUT objections against Austria joining NATO"

"Russo-Austrian relations have hit an all time low" WW1: "Am I a joke to you?"

I think Austria is not in NATO because being surrounded by NATO members it would make it difficult for Russia to attack them without having to violate NATO airspace, so they are basically protected by NATO without having to pay for NATO membership. The same goes for Switzerland.

Austrian here, generally good overview and pretty much spot on. One point though regarding your last sentence: Austria isn't really taking the question about Nato y/n more seriously, its hardly making headlines and no one really talks about it. Its far away from being a serious discussion or even consideration, with the chancellor (Nehammer) recently having said that "neutrality is not up for debate, end of discussion." Also, among the populus the opinion that neutrality is somehow a magic shield that helps you evade everything bad that could happen to your country is pretty much engrained in people's minds and sadly leaves little room for an informed discussion.

2:33 Austria joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program. *Shows a UN Flag above Austria*

As an Austrian, there are really two major reasons why we just won't join NATO anytime soon: The first, as mentioned in the video, is that it's just so damn cozy being surrounded by NATO countries without having to contribute. But the second, not mentioned one: Many austrians don't exactly see NATO (and their de facto leader, the USA) necessarily as the good guys. Many people view the american war in Iraq simply as an evil war of aggression, not really different from the evil crap that Russia does (there is probably a chicken-egg-dynamic with our neutrality going on here). And we don't want to be part of that. Now that view might have changed somewhat with the Ukraine invasion, but that's really only because Ukraine is in Europe and not in some faraway place.

Austria's flag looked so much like a "DO NOT ENTER" traffic sign maybe that's why it hasn't entered NATO

"Even invited Putin to her wedding" That has been Austrian foreign policy for centuries

Austria is like that kid whose father is a cop, uncle is a Mafiosi and brother is a professional MMA fighter.

I feel about Austria the same as I do about Ireland. I haven't a concern in the world about either one. Neither country is a threat to anyone and each has made and continues to make, valuable contributions to world order in their own ways. There is nothing wrong with having a few trusted "neutral" states around who can speak truth to either side in ways an aligned country never could. And besides; like Ireland, I have no doubt whose side Austria would be on if the day ever came when they absolutely had to pick one. As a citizen and former soldier of a NATO country (Canada), I would love to have Austria on board and would warmly welcome them if they ever did decide to join. I've worked with soldiers from both countries in the past and each are first rate. But I respect their decision to stay neutral and their reasons for it. They are a valued and trusted ally who can and does contribute in a whole host of other ways.

Well... Austria is home to both the Terminator and Hercules. There’s no need to join.

Everytime we tried to solve our problems with military might, it went horribly. We were always meant to be a diplomatic power, not a military force. That was always our northern neighbours job.

What stands out about Austria is its geographical position: after the end of the cold war, Austria found itself, like Swiss, completely enveloped by NATO country, which automatically protect its territory from outside invasion. For this reason, and for its small population and military budget, it is more useful for Austria and NATO to be separate. Being inside NATO would bring little benefit for Austria or for NATO, while relinquishing every convenience for having a friendly neutral nation in Europe which could act as Diplomatic facility

Only one condition for Austria to join NATO: Accept all art school applicants

Austrian here: Austria as you rightly said is engrained with being neutral ever since the second world war. The older generations and especially the generations where family members still tell/told stories from the second world war are very aware what it means to be neutral, at peace and the cost of such a war and how people struggled during and afterwards. Also the subject of the Nazi regime and the second World war gets extensively taught in schools which in my opinion is also immensely important so that people stay conscious of what happened back then and to never let it happen again. Austria has always played a role since then to be a mediator and/or creating space for discussions to be held, to this day there are several meetings every year from different agencies that come to meet and discuss and mediate in Austria because it is neutral ground. We enjoy being neutral and the status it has brought Austria the last several decades! I myself grew up hearing stories from my grandparents, some of which had to flee Poland and others who were fighting the nazi regime and some who were part of that regime. It has shaped my world view. We study the build up and the fall of the nazi regime and the second world war extensively in school and therefore every one (or at least the majority) know of the horrors of the times and vowed to never let that happen again. A nation with no military actions, no military alliances, a place for mediation, conversation and respect. Thats why austria is neutral. I know this was a bit of a rambling but i had to add something to this

To me as an austrian this video was sort of a test on how trustworthy this channel is in general and I'd say you passed pretty well. Only thing I would've liked to seen added is that both the wedding and the ibiza scandal (as well as pretty much all other russia related scandals) represents the stance of Austrias far-right party, not the country itself. Putin has been using far right parties all across the west to his advantage (cough Trump), he just had especially easy access in Austria.

I've been waiting for this video. As an Austrian I can say that being part of the EU is enough (look EU article 42) and we Austrians are not willing to be involved in more wars as we already fought many in history. Not to mention that we are surrounded by NATO states and we're pretty safe. We just need a strong military like Switzerland to defend ourselves. As from now, the vast majority of Austrians and none of the major political parties even think about giving up our neutrality.

It is easy being neutral when surrounded by friendly nations. Try to live next to a freaking russia

Cuz something sussy might happen if the Vienna Art Academy rejects an angry applicant again.

As an Austrian, I just want to add that there really aren't a lot of people who want to join NATO except some weird politicians. In fact most people are quite strongly against joining. My personal Opinion is that we should just beef up our "Army" to an extent that we can actually call it Army and stay out of NATO.

These videos are so so so cool and informational! Thank you so much for these. I've learned a lot about the geopolitical subjects regarding Europe and certain countries... something that I find really interesting and helpful.

Why join NATO when you are already surrounded by NATO. Free defense at no extra cost. xD

There is no advantage in Austria joining NATO. NATO won't attack Austria and no one can possibly arrive to the Austrian border unless NATO falls, but I don't think anyone would be too much interested in attacking Austria, unless Germany goes for a 4th reich

Thank you. I've been wondering about that question for 3 months. Well done!

So a bit like going out for a drink with someone who never buys a round .

Isn't it funny how every state that is neutral and doesn't want to join NATO isn't bordering Russia? Really says a lot about Russia.

The FPÖ wasn't replace by the ÖVP - after the FPÖ scandal during the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition, there were reelections and the ÖVP and the Green party formed a coalition. In other words, the FPÖ was replaced by the Green party, but that had no effect on Russian-Auistrian relationship; it was actually the invasion of Ukraine.

As an austrian, I can say that this is a very accurate video, well done!

Finally I've waited so long for TLDR news to finally make a video about austria

I've also found some people in Twitter are furious that Finland and Sweden is joining NATO, some of them saying it's "western imperialism" to defy Putin

_"Military analysts recommending a military spending of 2,5% of GDP to be able to defend themselves from invasion"_ (paraphrasing). Invasion from who exactly? Martians? Unless you're a major weapons manufacturer, spending that much on your defence if you're under _no threat whatsoever_ is effectively burning cash and resources that could benefit the economy if it were instead spent on infrastructure, health, education or even tax deductions.

As an Austrian, I can confirm this is a solid video^^

Would love to see videos about the other 3 🇪🇺EU members about NATO membership too: 🇮🇪Ireland, 🇨🇾Cyprus, and 🇲🇹Malta. Edit: he has already done Ireland!

Since Germany was formally divided into DDR and BRD in 1949 with Soviet forces in the former and US, British, and French in the latter, no doubt Austrians by 1955 realized either take the deal on neutrality or hello East Austria and West Austria formally or factually for the foreseeable future. Any realistic chance of Austria being invaded ended 1989

All the protection and none of the hassle of having to do anything. Sounds perfect.

Excellent presentation, very informative.

Very good piece.

After WW2, Austria was occupied by the 4 winners. It was so traumatizing that when in 1955 we had all occupiers leave our country having promised neutrality henceforth, we never ever wanted to have anything to do with war again. Germany had to wait till 1990 until they were "free" after the war.

As a resident of Austria since 1982, I can say that this was a pretty well balanced report. Two pertinent recent factors should also be mentioned: one, we have taken in about 70,000 Ukrainian refugees so far and are trying to get them what they need, although hampered by the still cumbersome Austrian bureaucracy. And two- 80% of our natural gas still comes from Russia. Ouch. That takes a big bite out of the effectiveness of the sanctions we are also applying. What to do is one of the hottest issues here right now. Everyone agrees that we need to quit our dependence on Russia (or Putin], but it's not at all obvious how. Many hope that this is our chance to cut down our use of fossil fuels altogether, but that's easier said than done, especially in a hurry. Cheers from sunny Vienna, and Slava Ukraina, Scott

That's hilarious - I just noticed that earlier today when there was a zoomed out view - apparently some others noticed too

Very well explained! Thanks!

It's probably more useful for everyone if Austria stays neutral. It can still function as a mediator. Finland and Sweden quite likely can't do that in the same way anymore.

Great video!

Austria is part of the EU which includes the commitment that *" if an EU country is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other EU countries have an obligation to aid and assist it by all the means in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter."* Vienna has said it plans to participate in the EU’s plan to create a Rapid Deployment Capacity of up to 5,000 troops, as codified in the Strategic Compass proposal

As much as I like the idea to have Austria inside NATO, I don't think that will not happen anytime soon. The Austrian neutrality and the traditionalism that we developed since the end of WWII are part of our identity, and that will not change unless the threat of War is really next to us.

According to the widsom of famous Austrian film director Bill Wilder for them it is no big deal appearing neutral while being drawn to one side in one topic and to another side on another is part of this very special talent. It is an old historic thing showing in a very old saying - Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube. They’re geniuses.

Pro NATO Estonian here. Why would it join NATO? It has no real threat to it and would just be drawn in to foreign affairs it has no stakes in.

As an austrian, I can't say anyone even favors the idea of NATO membership in the slightest. Our neutrality is just a general thing, that seemingly has no alternative I actually kinda like the though of joining the bloc, since it'd favor both sides and the biggest enemy of NATO is a fascist empire, with zero regards for neutrality to begin with. Plus we're basicly with them in every aspect, except militarily. Although with the expected higher militarization there's probably gonna be loads of issues and I certainly don't want to be conscripted if things go wrong. But alas it's hardly and rarely a question. And with that in mind, I hope if anyone ever sweeps through nato, they'll respect our neutrality Also on the topic of Russia, I feel like everyone just generally liked them, back in the day. When I was in school, we just memed them a lot, but always in the light of them being these strong, badass super soldiers. Although I don't know what adults back then thought, I don't see anyone of any age still stand with Russia. Even people who supported the invasion at the head start, got behind the propaganda in only so much as days

Austria beware of Lichtenstein and especially Switzerland 😂. They could invade at any time without passing through NATO territory. Switzerland is also known for its occasional accidental invasions of it little neighbor Lichtenstein. Maybe thru play the long game and Lichtenstein is in on it 😂. Also Switzerland is probably the only country which could navigate the Alps with heavy military equipment. A Swiss Austrian war is real! Just kidding it extremely unlikely Swiss and Austria are friendly neighbors and only compete in skiing, tunnel and gondola building.

Neither Austria nor Switzerland have any incentive to join NATO. They are already de facto protected by NATO by virtue of being surrounded by NATO states, and no NATO country would want to invade them in the current state of geopolitics in Europe.

Austria should join an alliance of neutrality with Switzerland.

I honestly thought the title was Australia! That would be so funny if Australia did join NATO. NAPTO

0:13, Cyprus is not part of NATO, only EU.

6:50 the armed forces as "natural disaster unit". There was a discussion some years ago in Austria, to focus exactly on that. The discussion was mainly because the army gets low spending and has also low use(currently) so some politicans(I think) mentioned that the military could be changed to just focus on natural disasters and basically having not any real fighting military.

Why don't all countries declare to remain neutral. Less military spending for all. Peace and kind regards from Austria :)

Excellent thank you

Like others already pointed out in the comments that a NATO aliance would not benefit Austria at all. If Russia wants to attack Austria they would need to invade Hungaria and then Russia is already at war against NATO. And NATO would 100% place troupes in Austria to get a strategic advantage and to prevent Russia on getting closer to Germany or France for example, even though Austria is not in NATO.

Austrians never ever had strong intentions to join any military alliance after WW2. And Austria was pretty much surrounded by Warsow pact and NATO countries for 40 years. Military plans and preparations accounted for both a NATO or a Soviet invasion equally, just because we war now surrounded by just one doesn't change the fact that Austria is still surrounded by non-allied countries.

Why do you not include Finnmark, Norways northernmost region, in the map of NATO? It is also covered by article 5. I have seen this on several of your thumbnails recently

This wouldn't be a TL;DR video without being told about Brilliant

The Austrian govt has planned to raise the military spending to 1.5% of it's GDP, since the aspect of natural disaster response is close to a collapse too, as the military has been financially neglected for so long. Natural disaster response and prevention is important, but I would prefer if at least some of that reallocated money had been spent on compensating the economic consequences of the current geopolitical situation (including supply chain issues).

American Here: As long as Austria is not threaten by Putin and other bully nations I don't see why them not joining is a problem. If it wasn't that Finland and Sweden risked being the next Ukraine I would not even be interested in whether or not they joined. As others have said their surrounded by NATO members, their safe. As long as they don't harbor NATO enemies there is no problem.

Fun fact: The one gray seat on the "current Austrian government" seat map around 06:00 is the ex of H.C. Strache. The one from the video mentioned earlier ;)

Brilliant and enlightening article.

Being landlocked has the disadvantage for Austria that leaving the EU is pretty much impossible because than they would be econimically landlocked (like switzerland is at the moment) at forced into unfavorable trading deals.

As an Austrian citizen I can tell you we won't ever join NATO. We are proud to be neutral. We are proud to be an important neutral ground for the east and west to negotiate and it is important for us to be neutral to keep important world organisations as mentioned in Austria. Since we are in the EU we are already indirectly woven into the NATO. Therefore it just does not make any sense for us to join. It would actively worsen our political and economical standing in the non western world while providing no benefit to us in reality.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer has been criticized for declaring the debate about joining an alliance closed before it even began. There has been an "open letter" calling for an open debate (with open outcome), and it seems like people are actually starting to discuss which future would be best. Joining NATO would also mean more obligation to invest in the military and help defending other countries. Which isn't that popular in Austria.

Nice to see a real live human being talking to me instead of some robotic voice

We've never been good at war. "Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube" 👰🤵💘🕊 was our motto since the 15th century. Neutrality is a very convenient way of doing nothing and not being responsible for anything.

As austrian, no. Happy to be neutral

As austrian i have to say its a great video👏👏

Haha, I thought you said Australia. I was so confused listening to the episode for awhile. Great coverage on the history! 👏🙏🏼😁

We're neutral and we're staying neutral. That's why.

Great as always. Just @2:41 you used the UN flag instead of NATO

0:29 "Which are linked down below" Uuuh... Did someone forget to put the links in? I can't see them in the description.

Did anyone notice that none of the vids they say are linked below are actually linked?!!

The last time the Austrians had anything like a formidable army the Archduke Charles was in charge. Austrians are much better at gemutlichkeit!

At the start of World War II, The Nazis tried to threaten Switzerland. Nazis: "Join us or die" Switzerland: "No" Nazis: "We will annex your country. Our army is twice the size of yours." Switzerland: "In that case, each of us will have to fire twice."

Austria's agreed upon perpetual official neutrality is why Austrian reunification was allowed as early as 1955 whereas by contrast, it took another 35 years for German reunification to come to fruition in 1990.

yet*

Honestly, it's fine that they're militarily neutral. There are so many hurdles to an invasion of Austria that an invasion of their country is nearly impossible. Any aggressor would have to go through NATO territory/airspace. Even if they did get invaded, they're in the EU and the common defense clause would probably trigger, and at that point the US would likely enter as well. Short of a psychotic break from a certain hostile dictator, which I guess is a non-zero possibillity now, they're safe. They can act as a conduit for international diplomacy.

Im not an Austrian, but been living in Vienna for almost 9 years now. Being myself from an Eastern European country, I am totally supporting Ukraine and am against Russia. But regarding the neutrality, Austrias role as a bridge builder in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, will revive the incentive for a non military alliance. We should also not forget that arming of NATO Countries (especially Germany!) following the Russian invasion of Ukraine projects very unsettling future perspectives - more weapons = more diplomatic leverage with competing powers = higher tensions.

The FPÖ was replaced by the Greens, not the ÖVP.

For a moment I thought the title said Australia and I was wondering if they had just run out of video ideas.

On military spending, Austria doesn't have a professional army but uses conscription and universal mandatory military service. So it had in the past a huge reserve force, tons of weapons and the military strategy was always to make it as expensive as possible for a potential invader. Because Austria never had colonies, there's no need for a huge costly offensive military force and those mentioned UN missions are 100% voluntary. Austria's strong point and reason for it's survival is after all diplomacy, spending more on military doesn't make that much difference considering the size of the military blocks surrounding us.

Pretty good video! The only thing, i think, that is missing, is that the moscow protocols as you called it resulted in the austrian "Staatsvertrag" (state treaty) which is a valid treaty to this day. Signed by the 4 big winning countries and austria. (the original copy of the treaty is in moscow) So, in order to join NATO this treaty would need to be dissolved which would need the 4 WW2 winning big powers(or their inheriters) to agree that austria could join NATO. One of the 4, as we all know, is russia... So in contrast to Finland and Sweden (who opted for neutrality out of their own will decades ago) austria "needs to ask for permission".

Austria has a kind of "if I don't provoke the bully, he won't harm me" mentaltity

LOLnope, this is a situation in which we get to have our cake and eat it. There is literally no upside to joining NATO for Austria, only obligations. We are surrounded by NATO and have no coastline, so for us to have _any_ military conflict, someone would have to go through NATO first.

It'll be a nightmare when Switzerland joins NATO

Why join the alliance when the alliance is all-around you like a shield? Logically, Austria doesn't need to join NATO because it enjoys the protection of NATO without dealing with some of the burdens that comes with it. Like it was said in the video, Austria is a land-locked nation with NATO members around them. What's the chances of them being threatened by a Russia invasion when their NATO members can do all the work for them before Russia can even taste their air? Answer: Absolutely zero.

Other videos aren't linked in the description

Funfact: the austrian law forbids Austria to join any military alliance. BUT! Foreign military troops are allowed to go through Austria

Thanks for the education about Austria and NATO. I didn’t know Austria was a neutral country. 🤔

Been living in Austria for over a decade. Nobody wants to be non neutral.

Finn here, just want to comment firstly that it's up to the citizens of Austria to decide whats best for them. Having said that, while I understand this kind of hedgehog defense (relying on your neighbours to do the job for you) it's well kind of meh. Just look at the brave people of Sweden opening their eyes and abandoning 200 years of military non alliance. Times are changing...

Austria, basically Switzerland which doesn't have multilingual culture

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