Under Austrian law, all foreign military flights must apply for permission and declare their purpose before entering the country’s airspace. Requests tied to active conflicts are rejected, but routine transit or training missions are eligible for approval on a case-by-case basis.
Bauer declined to say how many requests the U.S. had made, telling POLITICO he did not yet have the figures and that compiling them would take time.
“The question is — why submit a request to a neutral state in the first place?” he added, hardening Vienna’s stance against Washington.
Austria has been “permanently neutral” since 1955, when its parliament persuaded the Soviet Union to end its post-war occupation of the country by passing a constitutional act vowing to never “join any military alliances, nor permit the establishment of any foreign military bases on her territory.”
More than 70 years later, a majority of Austrians remain committed to the principle of state neutrality and are in favor of keeping the country out of military alliances like NATO.
Center-right Chancellor Christian Stocker’s coalition government was praised for closing the country’s airspace to U.S. military aircraft on Thursday. Sven Hergovich, head of the center-left Social Democrats in the eastern state of Lower Austria, urged national leaders to hold the line, warning that the war “harms Austrian economic interests, Europe as a whole and world peace.”
Austria is the latest EU country to push back against the U.S.-led campaign. Spain, which has opposed the war since its outbreak, has similarly barred military aircraft involved in the conflict from using its airspace or the jointly-operated bases located within its territory. Italy has also refused permission for U.S. aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily, with officials on Tuesday citing a lack of prior authorization for missions to the Middle East.