BERLIN — Germany and Austria have agreed on a mutual aerial security treaty, completing a triangle of similar pacts among the three German-speaking nations bordering the Alps.
Under a new law, both countries will be allowed to pursue “non-military” airspace violations or unknown threats across their shared border without requiring prior approval from the other capital. This includes all manned or unmanned aircraft suspected of acting illegally and of having breached either Austrian or German airspace without prior authorization.
Additionally, Berlin and Vienna agreed to share day-to-day air surveillance reports.
The Bundestag, Germany’s lower chamber of parliament, ratified the treaty in Berlin late on Feb. 26. Negotiations for it had started in 2018, but its implementation was stalled by the Covid pandemic, shifting priorities and changes of power.
Austria’s equivalent to the Bundestag, the Nationalrat, had already ratified the treaty text in 2024 after German and Austrian officials had signed it in the border town of Berchtesgaden two years earlier.
Per the treaty text, the use of weapons and most forms of threat and coercion are explicitly prohibited in the partner country’s airspace.
The language mirrors existing treaties between Germany and Switzerland from 2007, as well as between Austria and Switzerland, agreed in 2017.
The German-Austrian agreement completes the so-called “Alpine triangle” and addresses the risk of unidentified aircraft being unaccompanied when overflying complicated border regions between the three countries.
The Alpine republics to Germany’s south have longstanding traditions of military neutrality, which limit their ability to enter into military treaties. This likely played a role in the treaty texts singling out non-military threats. Unlike Germany, neither Austria nor Switzerland are NATO members.
However, both of Germany’s neighbors joined the Berlin-led European Sky Shield air defense initiative, formally announcing their intent to do so at a joint ceremony in 2023.
The air security treaty between Berlin and Austria will enter into force three months after mutual notification of ratification, likely in May or June.
Linus Höller is Defense News’ Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds a master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.
