MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. The political course of Austria’s current authorities conflicts with the country’s de jure neutral status, Karin Kneissl, former Austrian foreign minister and head of the Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key Issues (GORKI), a research center at St. Petersburg State University, said in a broadcast by the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

Earlier, Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said that she is open to a public discussion of the future of Austrian security, noting that a discussion of the country’s NATO membership could be "quite productive."

Commenting on that statement, Kneissl noted that the discussion of Austria’s NATO membership is not something unprecedented. She pointed out that this policy contradicts the country’s de jure "neutral status."

The former top Austrian diplomat also emphasized that Meinl-Reisinger’s remarks are not a mistake but rather the result of Austria’s political strategy over the past three years. In her opinion, Austria has already abandoned its permanent neutral status by opening a transit corridor for NATO arms supplies. Kneissl pointed out that nothing of the kind has been happening during other wars, such as the conflicts in Kosovo or Iraq, thus, de facto, Austria had diverged from its neutral status.

Currently, Austria’s non-bloc status has been enshrined in a separate constitutional law. It was approved by the Austrian parliament in 1955 in order to guarantee the nation’s independence and provide immunity to the country’s territory after World War II.