Yuri Kobzar18:32, 20.06.25

3 min.139

Austria is not thrilled about the prospect of losing cover on its eastern border.

Austria may abandon its neutrality , which it has maintained for 80 years, if the pro-Russian government of Slovakia decides to withdraw its country from NATO, former Austrian Defense Minister Werner Fasslabend said in an interview with the Slovak newspaper Dennik N.

He noted that military neutrality has become part of the Austrian political worldview, but at the same time it has often been criticized by Austrian and foreign experts as naive and outdated in times of increasing Russian threat. However, Austria still does not plan to abandon it as long as the strategic situation for the country remains in the current status quo.

First, Austria relies on the Treaty on European Union, which includes a clause on mutual military assistance in the event of a military attack. Second, Austria is currently completely surrounded by friendly countries – in the west it borders neutral Switzerland, and the rest of its borders are with NATO countries. So in the event of an attack from the east, the Russians would have to pass through NATO territory to reach Austria.

However, the weak link here may be Slovakia, with which Austria shares a little over 100 kilometers of border.

“If Slovakia leaves NATO, it will worsen the security situation for Austria as well. This will certainly lead to serious debates about Austria’s NATO membership and possible accession to NATO,” says Werner Fasslabend.

Is Slovakia leaving NATO?

Earlier this week, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico criticized Trump’s demands for NATO countries to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP during a press conference.

“In these senseless times of arms buildup, when arms companies are rubbing their hands… neutrality would be very useful for Slovakia,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters .

Later that day, Fico was forced to clarify his statement of neutrality.

“The US has decided to raise its membership fee to 5% of GDP. We have a simple solution. Either we pay new membership fees (over 7 billion euros!) on the condition that we use the defense money at our discretion, especially on dual-purpose projects such as hospitals and roads, or we leave NATO. It is absolutely absurd to spend almost a fifth of the entire budget on defense, we do not have the money for it,” he wrote on his Facebook . 

Trump demands NATO increase defense spending

As UNIAN reported, after winning the election, Donald Trump said he would demand that NATO allies increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, although not all of them adhere to the old requirement of 2% of GDP. Analysts called this requirement unrealistic and suggested that Trump is demanding the impossible in order to finally bury NATO as an alliance.

However, it is expected that at this year’s NATO summit next week, member states may indeed set themselves an official goal of raising defense spending to 5% of GDP . None of them currently spends that much.

(c)UNIAN 2025