Narendra Modi’s visit to Vienna this week was the first by an Indian Prime Minister since Indira Gandhi’s trip to Austria in June 1983.
The prime minister’s decision to travel to Vienna immediately after meeting President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, where Austria is a European country that is not part of NATO, is where the 32 leaders of the US-led anti-Russia trans-Atlantic military alliance gathered in Washington.
News for both sides
During the visit, which Modi said the world was watching, the prime minister told Putin that the death of innocent children was painful and heartbreaking.
“No conflict can be resolved on the battlefield,” he said, adding that peace talks cannot succeed amid bombs and bullets.
Modi’s statements expressed India’s deep concern over the suspected Russian missile attack on a children’s hospital in Kiev. The attack, carried out while the prime minister was in Russia, mirrored a pattern in December 2023
Russia launched its biggest airstrike on Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022, killing at least 31 people, the Ukrainian military said, as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar traveled to Moscow to meet Putin and his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
Therefore, when the Prime Minister spoke to President Karl Nehmer in Vienna the day after he met Putin, he stressed that this is not the time for a war that cannot solve problems on the battlefield, and that the loss of innocent lives anywhere is unacceptable.
Modi’s bilateral meeting with the Russian leader reiterated India’s clear message to concerned Western capitals.
A neutral country
Vienna was under Nazi occupation during World War II. After the end of the war, it was divided into four divisions by the United States, England, France, and the Soviet Union, overseen by the Allied Commission. Austria was occupied by the Allies for a decade after the war.
In 1955, the four occupying powers signed the Austrian State Treaty with the Austrian government to establish Austria as an independent state.
The Soviet Union demanded that Austria, strategically located between capitalist Western Europe and the Communist bloc in the east of the continent, maintain neutrality on the model of Switzerland, with the Four Powers pledging the integrity and inviolability of Austrian territory.
The 1955 treaty, ratified by all nations, bound Austria to neutrality. Austria’s constitution prohibits entering into military alliances and establishing foreign military bases on Austrian territory.
Austria and Nehru
In 1952-53, the Austrians approached Jawaharlal Nehru, respected by the West and the Soviets, for help in securing a sovereign nation.
India was one of the few countries to support Austria’s appeal to the United Nations General Assembly in 1952 for an end to Allied occupation and restoration of its sovereignty.
Austrian Foreign Minister Karl Gruber noted that the recognition of India, “an important country that is unquestionably neutral in the East-West conflict, would be particularly useful to Austria’s cause.” Quoted in Hans Köchler’s Austria, Neutrality and Non-Alignment.
In June 1953, Gruber and Nehru attended the coronation of Elizabeth II in London and, according to media reports of the time, had a meeting the next morning. In his book Political Settlement after World War II (1972), British historian Sir John Wheeler-Bennett wrote that Nehru’s role as “diplomatic mediator” introduced “an entirely new factor in the Austrian treaty discussions”.
The well-known Austrian philosopher Köchler quoted from a statement published in the Austrian newspaper Neues Österreich on June 21, 1953: “There is no doubt that the only personality that supports ‘good offices’ in international politics is.
In June 1955, about a month after Austria gained full independence through the State Treaty, Nehru paid the first visit of a foreign leader to the country.
President Nehammer on Wednesday recalled Nehru’s role. When asked by Prime Minister Modi, he said that the situation is difficult and it is difficult to move forward.
It was Foreign Minister Gruber who contacted Prime Minister Nehru and sought his support in bringing the talks to a positive conclusion. This is what happened. India helped Austria and the negotiations came to a positive conclusion with the Austrian State Treaty.
The evolution of relationships
Diplomatic relations between India and Austria were established on November 10, 1949 – this year marks its 75th anniversary.
The year after Indira’s visit in 1983, Austrian Chancellor Fred Sinowitz came to India on a reciprocal visit. President KR Narayanan went to Austria on a state visit in November 1999; Austrian President Dr Heinz Fischer visited in February 2005 and President Pratibha Patil visited Austria in October 2011.
Austria’s foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg, has an interesting connection with India.
When he visited with a high-level business delegation in March 2022, it was learned that his father, Wolfgang Schallenberg, was Austria’s ambassador to India between 1974 and 1978, and that the current foreign minister had attended primary school in New Delhi.
Alexander Schallenberg followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Austrian Foreign Service, becoming his country’s foreign minister in 2019. He became president for three months in 2021, and was foreign minister from December 2021.
So when Schallenmerck met Jaishankar, they struck up an instant rapport — both career diplomats turned foreign ministers, both sons of distinguished government officials. (Jaishankar is the son of K Subramaniam, head of India’s Strategic Affairs Analysts.)
Austria offers tremendous opportunities for bilateral cooperation in infrastructure, renewable energy, e-commerce, fintech, enterprise technology, consumer services and media and entertainment. Both countries have taken balanced positions in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Although Austria supports EU sanctions against Russia, on April 11, 2022, President Nehhammer became the first European leader to visit President Putin to discuss the end of the war. Austria has publicly criticized Russian actions in Ukraine, but trade relations between the two countries remain largely intact, and it continues to import gas from Russia.
During Nehru’s visit in 1955, Austrian President Theodor Körner described him as a statesman who “constantly inspires world politics with fruitful ideas.
2024 is not 1955, but New Delhi and Vienna can once again navigate global waters fraught with tension and conflict as partners with a shared goal.
