"NATO will defend those countries that are not members of the alliance"

"NATO will defend those countries that are not members of the alliance"

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nechamer says that at the last EU Summit in Paris, it was promised that the member states of the Union that are part of the NATO alliance will protect those members that are not part of the military alliance, such as Austria, if they are attacked.

"The clarity with which this was said was astonishing. Those EU countries, which are also members of NATO, made it clear that neutral and non-NATO countries will be indirectly protected by NATO due to the obligation to provide assistance. This is true as a warning to Moscow, which threatens Finland. Austria benefits from that", Nechamer underlined in an interview with the daily" Standard".

He added that the war in Ukraine dramatically showed how important the common foreign and security policy is, and what that means for the defense policy.

Now, Nechamer believes, it is important to strengthen the interoperability of national security forces. "What will not happen is the EU army. At the moment, there are no such aspirations, nowhere," he underlined.

The chancellor said that what is noticed regarding the Ukrainian conflict is that Germany and France have an important role.

He said that the conflict in Ukraine is very dangerous, because it could turn into a World War, and that is why Europe, as well as the United States, reacts only "in a civilian manner" to the military conflict, and NATO and the United States do not take military measures.

Nechamer reminded that the dynamics of the war are often irrational, adding that the First World War is a real example of that.