From 10-13 May 2022, Austrian Minister of Defense Klaudia Tanner traveled to the U.S. for a signing ceremony at the Vermont State House in Montpelier, VT on May 11 as Austria formally joined the U.S. National Guard’s State Partnership Program (SPP). The SPP was founded in 1993 to help former Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union Republics to form their own defense forces and involves extensive joint exercises and collaboration between a U.S. state’s national guard and the non-U.S. partner’s armed forces. Austria will be the first European participant that is not a former member of the Warsaw Pact or former Soviet Union Republic. Austria will partner with the state of Vermont.

Austria and Vermont already cooperate militarily in a variety of capacities, such as safe munition storage through the Physical Security and Stockpile Management Program. The Vermont National Guard’s Army Mountain Warfare School, the U.S. Army Biathlon Program, and the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) have partnered with their military counterparts in Austria already for over 30 years. Austria’s participation in the SPP with Vermont will only deepen that cooperation.

At the start of her trip, Minister Tanner also visited Washington, DC, where she met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hick at the Pentagon on May 10 to discuss the U.S.-Austrian defense relationship in light of the changing security landscape in Europe. The U.S. Department of Defense released a readout of the meeting here.