Switzerland and Austria will join the European agreement on air defense
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On Friday, July 7, Swiss Defense Minister Viola Amherd and Austrian Defense Minister Claudia Tanner, together with their German counterpart Boris Pistorius, signed a declaration of intent to join the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) in Bern. Thus, 19 countries will now participate in the project.
The system of protecting the European sky from air danger was initiated by Germany. The project is designed to support NATO in creating a safe airspace over Europe. Sky Shield became a response to the strategic security conditions that have changed as a result of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine. As part of the project, it is planned to purchase the Israeli Hetz anti-missile systems.
Currently, the sky over Europe is not sufficiently protected from ballistic missiles, which can reach a significant height during the flight, Tagesschau notes. There are gaps in the reflection of drones and cruise missiles.
Austria and Switzerland expressed their desire to join the agreement despite their position of neutrality. However, the defense ministers of these countries emphasized when signing the statement of intent that deepened cooperation with NATO does not mean changes to previous attitudes. It is only about cooperation in military training, support of deployment points and logistics. The Austrian Defense Minister called the agreement “historic”. According to her, this is an important step and “an important sign that Austria is ready to jointly strengthen air defense in Europe.”
“The war in Ukraine, among other things, has shown quite clearly that previously insufficient importance was attached to air defense in Europe,” said the Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany, Boris Pistorius.
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