AUSTRIAN Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schussel yesterday appeared to change course on future membership of Nato, saying Austria was not planning to abandon its long held neutrality.
"We are not going to plunge head first into the Nato pool if it isn't even clear if it's filled with water," Mr Schussel said after a cabinet meeting of the left right coalition.
Austria has been neutral since 1955. The Soviet Union, which, together with France, Britain and the US, occupied the country, after the Second World War, demanded it enshrine neutrality in national charter before Russian troops could be withdrawn.
Although 60 per cent of Austrians oppose Nato membership, the government is aware that the country could be left out of security decision making if its formerly communist neighbours join.
