Austrian Foreign Minister Meinl-Reisinger admits the country's membership in NATO

Austria may abandon its neutrality towards Russia and join NATO. This was stated on July 26 by the head of the state's Foreign Ministry, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, in an interview with Welt.

"One thing is clear: neutrality alone will not protect us. Against the background of an increasingly uncertain security situation in the world <...>, Austria is being protected by investments in its own defense capability, as well as in partnerships," she said.

According to Meinl-Reisinger, at the moment there is no majority in the country in favor of joining NATO. However, despite this, such debates can be fruitful.

"It's not that I want to join NATO in triumph. But we can't sit back and say, if we don't hurt anyone, no one will hurt us. That would be naive. The world has changed," she added.

"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

On June 30, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that NATO's aggression against Russia could lead to the outbreak of World War III. He stressed that more and more countries of the alliance understand the danger of open confrontation with Russia and are trying to avoid such a development.

On May 28, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Ukraine's tightening into NATO and the long-term expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance to the east had become the trigger for the Ukrainian conflict. According to him, these actions took place contrary to the assurances of the Americans and Europeans that NATO expansion would not take place.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.