Austria’s foreign minister shot back at suggestions in Brussels that his country is not willing to toe the line on sanctions against Russia if the country invades Ukraine, saying Vienna would support a “robust response,” including the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
“Are we prepared to support sanctions? Yes,” Alexander Schallenberg told POLITICO in an interview on Friday. “I’m confident there will be a unified response and Austria is part of that consensus.”
Schallenberg, who briefly served as Austria’s chancellor in the wake of Sebastian Kurz’s resignation last year before returning to the foreign ministry in December, added that the EU has “massive economic leverage” and shouldn’t hesitate to use it.
As the European Commission lays the groundwork for the possibility of imposing new sanctions against Russia, multiple diplomats said this week that Austria had joined Hungary in trying to water down those efforts due to the country’s economic ties to Russia.
But Schallenberg said that whatever debates there were over details, no one should doubt that Austria supported using “a big stick.” Noting that Vienna is closer to Ukraine than to Austria’s own western frontier, Schallenberg said the crisis there had a direct impact on his country.
“The security of Ukraine is our own security,” said the minister, who this week visited both Kyiv and the Donbass region, where Ukrainian forces have been battling against Russia-backed separatists since 2014. Schallenberg made the trip together with his counterparts from the Czech Republic and Slovakia — a signal, he said, of the region’s solidarity with Ukraine.
“It is simply not acceptable for anyone in this day and age to think they can use tanks and missiles to redraw borders,” he said.
The minister has previously questioned whether Nord Stream 2, a key strategic project for Moscow that would allow the country to double the capacity of direct gas deliveries to Germany via the Baltic, should be the focus of sanctions, given that the pipeline is not yet in service. Austria’s OMV oil and gas group, in which the government holds a substantial stake, is one of the partners on the project. Austria, like Germany, also relies heavily on Russian gas.
Schallenberg told POLITICO, however, that in the case of an invasion it was “clear that Nord Stream 2 will not receive an operating license.” (Though the pipeline’s construction is complete, it is still awaiting final approval from regulators in both Germany and the EU.)
Even as he underscored Austria’s readiness to impose sanctions against Russia, Schallenberg also said he believed there was still scope for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis.
“I’m still not convinced we’ve reached the point of no return,” he said.