03/20/2023 1:40 pm (act. 03/20/2023 1:40 pm)
Austria wants to replenish its ammunition stocks. ©APA/EVA MANHART (symbol image)
Austria wants to replenish its own stockpiles through a joint EU-wide purchase of ammunition.
“Of course, member states must ensure that their own stockpiles are still sufficiently full,” Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) said on Monday ahead of a meeting with his EU counterparts. Through the joint acquisition, expected synergy effects and lower prices, Austria would like to participate.
Austria wants to replenish ammunition stocks
“On February 24 (2022, note), we experienced that the situation can change, that the world can become much more dangerous and much more conflicted,” Schallenberg said about the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in the year of Ukraine. “The illusion that you can survive in this world with empty barracks, empty stocks of ammunition has been proven wrong,” he added.
However, the EU’s ammunition delivery debate is mainly about support for Ukraine. On the one hand, this involves deliveries from national stockpiles and, on the other hand, a joint purchase of artillery ammunition. As a neutral country, Austria will not deliver ammunition to Ukraine, but will supply its own stockpiles. Schallenberg wasn’t able to say exactly what the ordering process should look like.