Austrian Maritime Conference: Review, Publications, and Next Steps

The Austrian Maritime Conference at the University of Graz brought together experts from politics, science, business, and the security sector to discuss Austria’s maritime interests and dependencies.

The organizing team would like to take this review as an opportunity to sincerely thank all speakers, participants, sponsors, and partner organizations for their contributions and engaging discussions. The conference provided numerous impulses for future projects and made an important contribution to the Austrian discourse on maritime issues.

Conference Report and Key Publications

The conference report is available for download here:

The German and English versions of the Pantier Report “Austria in the Maritime Century” provide a comprehensive overview of Austria’s maritime interests and dependencies:

• https://acipss.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ACIPSS-pantier_report-N09-Stoehs_Trautendorfer-Oesterreich_im_maritimen_Jahrhundert.pdf
  (German)
• https://acipss.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/ACIPSS-pantier_report-N09-Stoehs_Trautendorfer-Austria_in_the_Maritime_Century.pdf
  (English)

Furthermore, we would like to highlight the following related articles and contributions concerning the conference and Austria’s maritime interests:

• Österreich braucht eine Meeresstrategie – Austrian Maritime Conference 2025 (German)
• Austrian Maritime Conference: Maritime Sicherheit und strategische Abhängigkeiten im Fokus (Paywall) (German)
• Sebastian Bruns: „Auch Österreich hat maritime Interessen“ (German)

Maritime Topics Continue to Gain Importance

The maritime dimension has also gained significant political momentum: Austria has ratified the BBNJ high seas biodiversity treaty, extended its participation in EUNAVFOR ASPIDES and EUNAVFOR MED IRINI, and once again addressed maritime security in the UN Security Council.

These developments underline that maritime security, ocean conservation, and international maritime dependencies are of direct political, economic, and security-related significance—even for a landlocked country like Austria.

Oceans Hub Austria as the Next Step

As discussed during the conference, the organizing team considers the establishment of an “Oceans Hub Austria” – as outlined in the interministerial action plan “Protecting and Restoring Water & Aquatic Ecosystems” (p. 31) – to be a crucial next step.

Such a hub could better connect Austria’s maritime community, strengthen the exchange between science, business, politics, administration, and civil society, and lay the foundation for hosting events like the Austrian Maritime Conference on a regular basis.

The organizing team welcomes feedback, ideas, and interest in jointly realizing this vision. Doing so would strengthen both Austria’s maritime interests and the perspectives of landlocked countries at the European and global levels. Austria’s upcoming seat on the UN Security Council for 2027/28 offers a unique opportunity for this endeavor.

Thanks to Our Sponsors and Partners

Special thanks go to the Austrian Society for National Defense Steiermark as the main sponsor, as well as to all other sponsors and partners, in particular:

• The Faculty of Law at the University of Graz
• The Defence Horizon Journal
• The State of Styria
• Tourismus Steiermark
• Seen Blue Conservation
• The City of Graz
• Sicher Leben
• JPI Oceans

Since the conference was organized in the team’s spare time and without core funding, this support was crucial for its realization.

The organizing team looks forward to your feedback, suggestions for future events, and potential collaborations.