NATO's image in France and the United States is deteriorating dramatically, according to the study
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – According to a Pew Research Center study, NATO's public image in the U.S. and France has deteriorated dramatically last year after U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron changed the value of the Western alliance in Had asked.
The positive views of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, based on its allies' commitment to collective defense, declined from 64% in 2018 to 52% in 2018 in the US, the study released on Monday said.
In France, where Macron said last year that the alliance was "brain dead" for allegedly not contributing to resolving world conflicts, support declined to 49%, from 60% in 2017 and 71% in 2009. For 2018 was this is not the case available.
NATO diplomats have long feared that Trump's portrayal of NATO as an alliance in the crisis could undermine US public support.
NATO, founded in 1949 to curb a military threat from the Soviet Union, relies on U.S. military superiority to deal with a variety of threats at Europe's borders, including a resurrected, nuclear-armed Russia and militant attacks.
While Macron's statements stunned other NATO leaders on the eve of a December summit in the UK, Trump has taken allies to court over allegedly low defense spending since taking office in 2017. Trump threatened to pull America out of the alliance in 2018 and last year labeled low-cost allies as "criminals".
The Pew study found that several countries "fell victim to the alliance", including Germany, where support for NATO fell to 57% in 2019, from 63% in 2018.
Macron has defended what he said as a useful wake-up call for allies that he believed were too focused on defense spending and other internal issues, rather than relations with Russia, NATO member Turkey in Syria, and the Middle East.
However, in Britain, where NATO has become more symbolic after the country's decision to leave the European Union, NATO's positive views improved to 65% of the British last year from 62% in 2017.
Overall, the study found that 53% of the 16 NATO members had a positive opinion of NATO, with less than a third expressing a negative opinion. The alliance is seen the cheapest in Poland and the least appreciated in Turkey.
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