Next week, Tuesday Evening and Wednesday to be exact, don't even think about getting into the centre of Vienna. Forget a wander into an inner museum. It's lockdown time once again as the "leader of the free world" comes to the Austrian capital.
Bush - what's he doing here?
Good question? Hmmm, I guess why not? And another US-EU Summit was due. Why not do it in Austria which currently holds the EU Presidency?
No doubt Whitehouse aides will have looked at the world map & pointed out that since Austria is close to Hungary (and the President definitely wanted to go there for the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising), why not stop-off in Vienna to shore-up EU friends and enjoy a slice of Sacher Torte.
Will it all be smiles?
Absolutely. And then no doubt for a few minutes Guantanamo will be discussed. (After the suicides earlier this week and the vote in the EU Parliament and the statements by Ursula Plasnik - Vienna has to say something).
But, the President will have forewarning of the raising of these concerns, he will listen politely and will give a well-formatted answer (which will probably be firm but diplomatic - it stays open for now - until we can find a better solution).
Apart from Guantanamo what else?
In a word - Iran. We're up to the carrot & stick approach.
Tehran has been given tempting offers to scrap its nuclear facilities and at the moment - there is a lot of unity between Washington and this part of the world - (and so far, even further afield with China & Russia on board).
But it will be interesting to see the international reaction if Tehran rejects the offers and steps up its enrichment programme - what then? Maybe the US will be looking for clues in Vienna - what kind of support would there be from EU countries for sanctions and maybe even (if it comes to it) future military action?
And energy ...
After 2000, when Bush came into office, whenever there was a transatlantic meeting, the word was "Kyoto". Having looked into his crystal ball and reasoned that in places such as China & India, fuel consumption will rocket (sending oil prices even higher) it has ironically pushed this President into talking about the need for alternative sources of energy.
I wouldn't say he's necessarily discovered his greener side (since he's also talking about sinking more drills into Alaska & the Gulf of Mexico) but now he's talking hydrogen pumping stations and fuel-friendly cars. So, let's say there'll be a few more nods of agreement on energy policy than say 5 1/2 years ago.
So where do we agree & where do we disagree?
That's the big question of our Round Table discussion this Saturday on Reality Check. And we wanted to get an Austrian & an American viewpoint.
So, in the Reality Check studio, we've got Der Standard's Eric Frey (author of "Schwarzbuch USA") and William Kole, (Bureau Chief of the Associated Press in Vienna). Hear what they have to say on FM4, Saturday at 12 midday.
Vienna | 15.6.2006 | 16:15 
