During negotiations to end the occupation, which were ongoing at the same time as Germany's, the Soviet Union insisted on the reunified country adopting the model of Swiss neutrality.

The US feared that this would encourage West Germany to accept similar Soviet proposals for neutrality as a condition for German reunification.

[1] Shortly after West Germany's accession to NATO, the parties agreed to the Austrian State Treaty in May 1955, which was largely based on the Moscow Memorandum signed the previous month between Austria and the Soviet Union.

The Austrian military also participates in the United Nations peacekeeping operations and has deployments in several countries as of 2022[update], including Kosovo, Lebanon, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it has led the EUFOR mission there since 2009.

[2] Wolfgang Schüssel, Chancellor from 2000 to 2007 from the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), supported NATO membership as part of European integration.