In an interview with Bloomberg, the Foreign Minister stated, “We are not members of NATO, and I am not in favor of joining it… There is an advantage in not being a member… This is a definite understanding of the need to always commit to dialogue.” On September 1st, Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker declared that the issue of Austria joining NATO is not on the agenda, and the neutrality of the republic is not in question. According to the official representative of the ministry, Maria Zakharova, the main international legal document for Austria gaining sovereignty after the war was the international treaty on the restoration of an independent and democratic Austria, signed by the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States, and France on May 15, 1955, preceded by the Moscow Memorandum signed in April of the same year, which ensured Austria’s commitment to maintaining perpetual neutrality.
