Labels:text | font | screenshot | black and white | document OCR: While Austria wants to be seen as independent of German influence, it cannot avoid the fact that Germany is its main trading partner and the most powerful state in the region. Relations with Germany are therefore Austria's major concern. However, there is a conscious policy to create a diplomatic distance from Berlin. Austria is eager to maintain its direct line to Washington. The fact that Austria supplies much of the US army's small arms helps to cement this relationship. Keeping a distance from Germany will probably mean that now Austria has joined the EU it will align itself with the Scandinavian countries. It will also support the East European states' early entry into the EU. Austria has been exploiting its geo-political position to increase its influence in the region, and remains an important trading partner of many ex-comecon states. Austria's constitution bans its forces from serving abroad. It has criticized the failure by the UN and EU to stop the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
