2024-03-15 03:34:32
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is coming to Austria on Friday. According to both foreign ministries, he will meet Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (both ÖVP). Blinken is attending the annual conference of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna and will give a speech there in the early followingnoon. The conference will focus, among other things, on the rampant opioid crisis in the USA.
With Schallenberg, Blinken is likely to emphasize the harmony on international issues in the press conference at 3:15 p.m. in the Federal Chancellery. The US State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, had previously emphasized that the USA and Austria were working together on humanitarian aid for Ukraine and on compliance with the EU’s economic sanctions once morest Russia. Both countries are also among Israel’s strongest supporters in the Middle East conflict. Washington and Vienna are also pulling together regarding Russian aggression in Ukraine, although Austria does not want to provide military support to the beleaguered country due to its neutrality under international law. Blinken’s deputy, James O’Brien, praised Austria as a “great partner” in an APA interview in Vienna in December.
Numerous foreign ministers – for example from the coca-growing countries of Colombia, Honduras and Ecuador – are taking part in the 67th meeting of the United Nations Drug Commission, which opened on Thursday and lasts until Friday next week (March 22). According to US Department spokesman Miller, Blinken is the first US Secretary of State ever to attend a meeting of the UN Drug Commission. According to a report in “Falter” (Thursday, online), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin is also at the meeting. Austria will be represented on Friday by Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens), who will also give a speech.
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