Having served as the Ambassador of Austria to Malta for the last two years, I have had the honour to learn more about and understand better the international interests of Malta and to combine them with the aims of Austrian policies within the European Union and beyond.
Austria celebrates our National Day today, October 26, together with our Maltese friends. This presents me with a welcome opportunity to reflect on the contribution that our small countries have been offering in an increasingly disturbing world, where we face many challenges and threats.
Let me just single out two. First: the striving for world peace as it is enshrined in the United Nations founding Charter. Second: the survival of the environment and our planet threatened by our post-imperial lifestyle, industrialisation, carbon emissions and the reckless exploitation of natural resources.
The first challenge is the contemporary fashion in international politics called ‘My Country First’. Many politicians seem to have forgotten the lessons of World War I and II and what sacrifices it took to build up the United Nations after 1945 and to unify Europe’s eternal enemies after 1957.
Austria has definitely learned her lesson too: we commemorate on our National Day the very day in 1955 when the last liberation forces left the country and Austria declared her permanent neutrality.
Since then and over the years, Austria, just like Malta, became a proud and constructive member, in 1995, of the European Union. During this quarter century, Austria gained a reputation as a peace-loving country delivering great economic, scientific and cultural achievements.
Austria has supported peace processes in and around Europe, such as in the Middle East, ever since Bruno Kreisky became chancellor in 1970. This, in fact, coincided with Maltese politics in the 1970s aiming at overcoming the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and supporting de-colonisation. Our neutrality has never meant indifference but engaging ourselves for world peace.
Vienna has been voted as the best city in the world to live in. A green and smart city
Austria has proactively supported the United Nations with military peacekeeping forces, established a third headquarters of the United Nations in Vienna in 1979 and, finally, when the Iron Curtain between the former East and the former West had fallen in 1989, Austria applied to become a full member of the European Union.
And here we are today; within the European Union, Austria is certainly, together with Malta, a country that supports a peace oriented foreign and security policy, solidly based on the principles of the United Nations, international law and human rights. We are wary and sceptical of efforts of militarisation as we are seeing more and more warlords dominating international politics: war is, unfortunately, the continuation of the politics of “only my interest first”, to paraphrase Clausewitz. Syria, Libya and Yemen are victims of such thinking.
Consequently, Austria has proposed – also together with Malta – an international treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, the so-called ‘Nuclear Ban’, also efficiently promoted by the ‘International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons’ (ICAN) that received the Nobel Prize in 2017.
This is all the more important as we seem to have forgotten that the world’s nuclear powers are today able to kill millions by accident/mistake or even extinguish mankind through the escalation of nuclear attacks.
We are proud to report that 50 nations have signed and ratified this treaty, an important step on the way to become international law and legally binding. Will the superpowers stop building up their nuclear arsenals? Probably no, but many countries listen to the voices of Malta and Austria – and we are determined to strengthen the philosophy of peaceful cooperation and the resumption of nuclear disarmament processes.
As to our planet’s ecological survival: the world regards Austria as an open-minded democracy with a strong commitment to environmental responsibility and climate action. Vienna has been voted, now for the 10th year in a row, as the best city in the world to live in. A green and smart city.
In fact, the recent mayoral elections were much focused on discussions on how to reduce car traffic, reduce noise and carbon emissions and to prepare the city for climate change: bike lanes are being expanded, trees are replanted, parks enlarged and public transport is boosted. Just adding: Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen supports Greta Thunberg and Fridays for Future.
Despite the great pandemic challenge, our countries have been fighting its consequences together. We are committed to simultaneously overcome COVID-19, contribute to peace and help the survival of our environment, nature, seas, the diversity of species, because we are considerate of the future of our children.
Andreas Stadler, ambassador of Austria