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Austria Foreign Policy
Under Kreisky's leadership, Austria sought to play an active
role in international politics in the 1970s, particularly through
the UN. Reflecting the acceptance of Austrian neutrality,
Waldheim, the unsuccessful conservative presidential candidate in
1970, was elected UN secretary general in 1971 and reelected to
that post in 1976. Austria continued to cast itself as a bridge
between East and West, and Vienna was the site for some early
rounds of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) between the
United States and the Soviet Union. Kreisky became personally
involved in issues relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Despite
general support for maintenance of Israeli security, he
criticized Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians. In 1980
Austria gave de facto recognition to the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) by accepting an accredited agent of the PLO in
Vienna. Throughout the 1970s, however, Austria was also a transit
point for Jews leaving the Soviet Union for destinations in
Israel and the West.
Austria established a more favorable trading relationship
with the EEC in 1972, but the EEC continued to move toward still
fuller economic and political integration in Western Europe.
Although Kreisky pointed to the possibility of Austria's adopting
legislation on its own in coordination with these developments,
he stressed that Austria's neutrality would continue to prevent
full membership in the EEC unless it were expanded to include all
of Europe.
Data as of December 1993
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