Austria Seeking Unique Position In Europe

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30830, 16 August 1965, Page 10

Austria Seeking Unique Position In Europe

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter)

VIENNA.

The visit of the Austrian Chancellor, Dr. Josef Klaus, to France at the end of June is being looked upon by Austrian observers as a further move by Austria to establish its unique political position in Europe.

The main aims of the country’s foreign policy arc to reach a “special arrangement” with the European Common Market and to normalise and intensify relations with the east bloc countries. Both aims arise from the geographical, historical and political situation of Austria, which declared its everlasting neutrality 10 years ago. The country has common frontiers with two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members (Italy and West Germany), two members of the Warsaw Pact (Hungary and Czechoslovakia), one communist, nonaligned country (Jugoslavia) and a western neutral state (Switzerland).

It has a common past with several eastern territories in the Austro-Hungarian monrachy, which crumbled in 1918 after the end of World War 1. And it has strong economic bonds with the West European countries. More than a half of Austria’s exports go into the Common Market countries, West Germany alone buying one-third. Because of her neutrality, Austria, a member of the European Free Trade Association, into which she sends about 20 per cent of her exports, is unable to join the Common Market as a full member.

However, necessity forces her to seek an arrangement with the Common Market and the first discussions on the subject took place in Brussels in March.

To gain support among the Common Market countries. Dr. Klaus went to Brussels in June last year where he is believed to have convinced the Belgian Government of

the desirability to conclude a special treaty with Austria.

Dr. Klaus has also had two informal talks with the West German Chancellor, Dr. Ludwig Erhard. It is likely that his visit to Paris will be focussed on relations between Austria and the “Six,” as an accord with France would certainly facilitate the current negotiations. The other main objective of Austrian foreign policy is harmonisation of relations with her eastern neighbours. Dr Klaus scored a big success with his visit to Belgrade earlier this year. In fact, this visit was

the first practical action by Dr. Klaus to realise the “completion of the Eastern part of the house of Europe” which he had called for in a speech in the Consultative. Assembly of the Council of Europe in January when he urged that Europe had to be more than only the six Common Market and the seven Free Trade Association countries.

Earlier, he had put the Austrian point of view in an article in the Swiss weekly “Die Weltoche”: “Austria does not look only to the West nor only to the East,” he wrote. He emphasised that the Austrians had made their ideological position clear in many elections by out-voting the Communists. “We know quite well that the Communists regard peaceful co-existence as a continuation of the struggle against our way of life, but we do not believe that they could succeed in swallowing us without violence,” he said. As part of this policy visits by the Vive-Chancellor, Dr. Bruno Pittermann, and the foreign Minister, Dr. Bruno Kreisky, to Hungary, could considerably improve relations between the two countries. Relations have been rather cool for some years .as a consequence of repeated border incidents, pending property compensation claims and other problems. Mr Josef Cyrankiewicz, the Polish Prime Minister, is due to visit Vienna, the first Communist head of government to visit Austria since the visits of the former Soviet leader, Mr Nikita Khrushchev, who was in Austria on an official visit in 1960 and for hii summit meeting with President Kennedy in 1961.

Political observers note the similarities between the Austrian view of a “completed house of Europe” and the appeal of President de Gaulle for a “Europe from the Atlantic to the Ural.” It is also understood that the French President sympathises with the special Austrian situation and will support Austria’s attempts to reach a special agreement with the European Common Market.