Lebanese Ministry of Information
Support for Nato drops dramatically in Germany and France as east European members cling to it more over Russia fears
On the eve of a major Nato defence ministers’ summit in Brussels, malaise and uncertainty hung over the 29-member alliance.
Donald Trump is demanding members of Nato take up more tasks and burdens of the alliance, even as his own supporters lose enthusiasm and Washington increasingly takes up a go-it-alone strategy in key conflicts.
Germany and France are losing faith, while Poland, the Baltic states and others on the front lines against Russia are clinging to Nato, according to a survey released this week.
The Nato defence chiefs are coming together in Brussels this week for the first time since a tense meeting in London late last year, which descended into a secondary school comedy after several leaders were taped mocking president Donald Trump, who stormed out of the gathering.
Mr Trump’s hostility towards the alliance and his demands that members contribute more resources notwithstanding, the alliance, which weathered the Cold War and its aftermath, appears to be fraying, attacked from within by doubters like French president Emmanuel Macron, and from outside by Russian-backed propaganda and influence operations.
Support for Nato in France and Germany is down double digits over the past dozen years.
Nevertheless, according to the survey by Pew Research Centre (a think tank based in Washington DC), an average of 53 per cent of 16 member countries surveyed had a favourable view of Nato, with only about a quarter expressing negative views.
In the US, less than half of Mr Trump’s own Republican Party supporters view Nato positively, while three out of five of self-described Democrats have a favourable view of the alliance.
A total of 21,000 people were interviewed in the survey, which was conducted late spring and summer of 2019.
Most supportive were citizens of eastern European countries like Poland, which joined Nato in 1999 and fears Russian president Vladimir Putin’s designs.
Least supportive is Turkey, where only 21 per cent view Nato positively. Turkey has increasingly found itself on the wrong side of Nato partners in Syria and Libya as it expands its influence across the Mediterranean in moves that have alarmed alliance members Greece and Cyprus.
“Dealing with the Turkey problem now will be by far the most pressing issue,” said Simone Tholens, director of the Centre for Conflict, Security and Societies at Cardiff University.
The public in Sweden and Ukraine, non-Nato members which cooperate with the alliance, largely support it, again likely out of fear of Russian scheming.
Mandarins of western foreign policy are struggling to hold together an alliance they see as crucial for confronting a resurgent Russia and China. In a press briefing on Tuesday, the US envoy to Nato, Kay Bailey Hutchison, a rare member of the pragmatist Republican Party old guard within Mr Trump’s populist orbit, acknowledged frustrations with the alliance and urged leaders to publicly extol Nato’s benefits.
“Some of our leaders have criticised Nato in different ways,” she said, in response to a question by The Independent, urging officials in member states to emphasise th
Despite the dismal level of support for Nato in Turkey, she strongly supported Ankara in its ongoing confrontation with Russian-backed Syrian regime forces in Idlib province, calling the killing of more than a dozen Turkish soldiers at the hands of Bashar al-Assad’s forces “unthinkable”.
“We have come out strongly against that Syrian, Russian-backed activity,” she said.
Despite attempts to craft a positive image for Nato, a little more than half of those polled said their country should not defend an ally in case they were attacked by Russia, one of the key tenets of the alliance.
Ms Hutchison reiterated Mr Trump’s demands that member states contribute more for their own defence, also urging countries to get more involved in helping train up forces in Iraq.
Experts say that’s unlikely. Nato already operates a small mission in Iraq, which was highly contentious and polarising in the first place, and has been largely suspended following the US assassination of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad earlier this year.
“After the killing of Soleimani, Nato members are reluctant to support what the US is doing in the Middle East,” said Ms Tholens. “The US didn’t confer with any of its allies before going ahead with this operation.”
Ms Hutchison, emphasising the need to expand Nato’s cyberdefence and information war capabilities, said that “every one of our countries has had cyber and hybrid attacks from Russia, some from China”.
The Trump administration has proposed an additional $724m (£558m) in its 2021 budget to counter Russian operations, including propaganda and disinformation campaigns. But on the eve of the Nato summit, Moscow said it was unmoved by attempts to counter it.
“No sanctions, no programmes aimed at containing Russia, at limiting our influence, undermining our authority in the world, would work regardless of the amount of funding, regardless of the techniques that the US resorts to,” Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday.
Ultimately, Russia’s conduct may be the one issue that strengthens Nato.
“I think Nato has had an existential problem for quite a number of years,” said Ms Tholens. “The resurgence of Russia will strengthen the core. We’re going to go back to its original concept. We’re talking about a renewed Cold War.”
The Independent
